1887 Melbourne Jubilee Head Half Sovereign Good Very Fine

Description

The 1887M Jubilee Head Half Sovereign shares the singular distinction of its Sydney Mint counterpart – this is the inaugural year of the Jubilee Head portrait type, struck at the Melbourne Mint in the very year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee celebrations. While the Sydney Mint has traditionally attracted the greater share of collector attention for Australian colonial coinage, the Melbourne Mint issues of this period carry their own strong following, and the 1887-M half sovereign in any grade above Fine is a coin that serious collectors of the series will pursue with purpose. In Good Very Fine the coin presents with considerable appeal – well above the circulated norm for this date and a meaningful step up from the Fine and Very Fine examples that represent the bulk of the surviving population.

Obverse: The Jubilee Head portrait of Queen Victoria by Joseph Edgar Boehm, with the crowned and veiled Queen facing left, the legend VICTORIA DEI GRATIA sharp and complete, and the M mintmark for Melbourne identifying its colonial origin.

Reverse: The crowned shield reverse used on half sovereigns of this era, with the quartered royal arms presented within a decorated shield and the date 1887 below – a design of considerable heraldic dignity that distinguishes the half sovereign from the full sovereign’s more familiar St George reverse.