Victoria 1847 Gothic Crown, lettered edge

Victoria (1837-1901), Proof Gothic silver Crown, 1847, engraved by William Wyon, crowned gothic style bust left, small ww incuse on truncation, trefoil and arc border, legend in lower case Gothic lettering both sides, "Victoria dei gratia britanniar. Reg: f: d." rev. inverted die axis, crowned cruciform shields, emblems in angles, garter star at centre, w incuse on inner border either dies of top crown, date in roman numerals in lower right of legend which commences in upper left quarter, "tueatur unita deus anno dom mdcccxlvii", edge inscribed in raised letters "decus. et. tutamen. anno. regni. undecimo.", weight 28.35g (Bull 2571; Davies 472; L&S 57; ESC 288; S.3883). Once cleaned with heavy hairlines to fields, now lightly toned, otherwise good extremely fine.

One of the most spectacular designs for a silver coin in the entire British Milled series the Proof Gothic Crowns with lettered edge were limited to a mintage of only 8,000 pieces. William Wyon (1795-1851) was the Royal Academy engraver responsible and was at the peak of his career having also designed the equally impressive gold "Una and the Lion" Five Pound pieces dated 1839 also in Roman numerals.

The Latin legends translates on obverse as "Victoria by the Grace of God, Queen of the Briton's, Defender of the Faith," and on the reverse as "May God guard these united, in the year of our Lord 1847."

The legend on the edge translates as "An ornament and a safeguard in the eleventh year of her reign."