Victorian-era £5 gold coin showing the 20-year-old Queen leading a lion representing the burgeoning British Empire sells for a record £530,000

UK Daily Mail ^ | January 14, 2020 | Staff

[C19fan]

A rare Victorian gold coin considered to be one of the most beautiful ever produced has fetched a record £532,000.

The 1839 'Victoria Una and the Lion' five pound coin shows the 20-year-old queen leading a lion representing the British Empire.

It depicts Victoria as Una, from the Elizabethan poem The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser.

[Hiddigeigei]

No, most coin gold is 90% or 22K (about the same), with the remainder being copper.
I was surprised to find that some Krugerrands I had weighed a bit more than an ounce.

[SunkenCiv]

[Eagles6]

Modern Gold Eagles have the same obverse.

[Eagles6]

My favorite coin is the Standing Liberty Quarter 1917 Type 1.

Have an AU but keeping an eye out for a reasonable MS.

[Eagles6]

Same design on Silver Eagles.

I agree.

Beautiful coin.

[fieldmarshaldj]

The real problem, at least superficially, with our coinage, is that it makes it look like we worship politicians. I think it’s time to take all politicians off our coins and return to the figures of Liberty. Even Native Americans make for a decent model (although I don’t care for the Sacagawea modern design on the $1 coin).

[ProtectOurFreedom]

I 100% agree with you. I LOVE the symbolism of Lady Liberty as well as the eagle, the Indian and the Buffalo. I detest seeing politicians on coins and bills with the exception of Washington and Lincoln. And many here will vehemently disagree about Lincoln.

[fieldmarshaldj]

I thought the absurdity of "President dies, get on the coin." FDR died, he gets on the dime by the following year. JFK died, on the half-dollar months afterward. Ike dies, gets on the dollar coin less than 2 years later. Why ?

When Lincoln was murdered, other than for some commemoratives and medallions, he had to wait 44 years (to the centennial of his birth) to get on the lowly penny. Where were the coins for other assassinated Presidents ? How come Garfield didn't get on the nickel ? McKinley on the quarter ? Or those who died before their time, like poor William Henry Harrison, James K. Polk (who died only a year after he left office), Gen. Zachary Taylor ?

JFK & Ike should've gotten a commemorative, not bumped up to full-fledged coinage. Poor Benjamin Franklin had less than 2 decades on the half-dollar before being kicked off for the most overrated President in history (who cheated his way to the Presidency, was a sex predator, and almost got us into WW3).

If I could wave a magic wand, I would replace the coinage with these (adding a five, ten, and silver $50):

Penny

Nickel (return to the Buffalo/Indian Head)

Dime (return to Mercury)

Quarter (return to Standing Liberty)

Half-Dollar (originally the Indian Head $10)

Dollar (original Indian Head $2.50 piece)

Five Dollar (original Trade Dollar)

Ten Dollar (original 1804 Dollar coin)

Fifty Dollar (original Peace Dollar, which could be minted in silver)

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Excellent assessment!

While you’re at it, let’s also lop two zeroes off of our currency and get the numbers back to a lower range that was more meaningful. Inflation has really clobbered our coins and bills. The problem with doing that is you can’t recycle old coins or the old currency. You need to call it the “New Dollar” and give a deadline for everybody to turn in their old dollars for the New Dollar.

When I was a kid, we got 2¢ for a recyclable milk bottle and we thought we were rich!

[fieldmarshaldj]

You’re probably right. We need to have real metals with real value in our coins (incredibly, the metal in pennies is worth more than its value, even after they went to zinc). They pretty much did away with that beginning in 1965 (curiously, the point at which our country started going down the toilet to the present day).

Gold is too expensive at present. I think if we can make the argument for it, going back on the gold standard might be worth pursuing. I’m not an economist, so I can’t claim to be an expert on the subject.

I was a huge numismatist when I was a kid, still have a minor interest in it. Just observing that so much of our coinage is so boring and almost banal. Excluding the dollar coin, which hasn’t really been popularly used since before 1965, it’s now been an unprecedented 56 years since there has been a change (excluding minor design tweaks to the existing portraits) on the coinage.

[hanamizu]

I like your choices. But the Standing Liberty, which is stunning when new, wears rather poorly. When I was a kid (dodging dinosaurs) almost seemed to wear close to flat. But politicians, even good ones have made our coinage ugly.

[TexasRepublic]

You overlooked the beautiful Barber series.

[Cronos]

That’s like the book of Revelations - a woman riding the beast

[fieldmarshaldj]

Those are nice, too. Most of the pre-politician coins are.