1882 Melbourne Young Head Half Sovereign Good Fine

Description

The 1882-M Melbourne Mint Young Head Half Sovereign is a coin that captures a fascinating transitional moment in Australian colonial life. By 1882 the gold rush era that had founded the Melbourne Mint’s very purpose was a generation in the past, yet the mint was operating with mature confidence, its sovereign and half sovereign output feeding a colonial economy that was entering one of its most prosperous decades – the long boom of the 1880s that would transform Melbourne into one of the great cities of the British Empire and briefly make it one of the wealthiest cities in the world. A Good Fine example of this date is an honest colonial piece that circulated in that gilded era, passing through the hands of a society at the height of its Victorian confidence before eventually finding its way to preservation.

Obverse: The laureate young head of Queen Victoria by William Wyon, with the legend VICTORIA D G BRITT REG F D encircling the portrait and the M mintmark for Melbourne identifying its origin – the long-running Young Head portrait in the honest, evenly worn presentation characteristic of the Good Fine grade.

Reverse: The crowned shield reverse design used on Australian half sovereigns of this period, with the quartered royal arms within a decorated shield and the date 1882 below – the shield outline and main devices clearly present and the date fully legible.

Grade: Good Fine (GF)