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James Wyon's Type1 Sydneymint Sovereign Portrait Of Victoria

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Sovereign Debt's Avatar
Australia
51 Posts
 Posted 04/04/2012  09:29 am Show Profile   Bookmark this topic Add Sovereign Debt to your friends list Get a Link to this Message Number of Subscribers
I've been reading (lurking in?) this forum for quite a few years now & at last have decided to register so I can both contribute & ask questions. I'd like to start with a question appropriate to my alias.

Does anyone know if the James Wyon portrait of Victoria that was used on Type 1 Sydney Mint 1855 & 1856 sovereigns & half sovereigns was ever used on any other coinage anywhere else in the world?
James-Wyon's-Type1-Sydneymint-Sovereign-Portrait-Of-Victoria
I ask this because William Wyon's Young Head portrait of Victoria (William was James' cousin), which appeared on Australian sovereigns & half sovereigns from 1871 to 1887, was also used for much other British coinage as was his beautiful Gothic portrait of Victoria. Between 1857 & 1870, Leonard Wyon's "plait under the ear" as I call it or as it is more prosaically known, Type 2 portrait (Leonard was William's son) was used on Australian sovereigns & half sovereigns but I haven't come across that one anywhere else either. Leonard's famous "bun" portrait of Victoria, although not used for Australian coinage, was used in Britain & other places in the Empire & he had also designed the reverse of the Sydney Mint sovereigns that was used from the pattern in 1853 until 1870. William & Leonard obviously enjoyed much more success than James.

According to the RAM's Mint Issue magazine #54 of September 2003, the Wyons were not renowned for the strength of their constitution and in 1860 James was placed in a mental hospital & died aged 64 in 1868, his cousin William having pre-deceased him in 1851 aged 56 long before his work was used in Australia. Leonard died of Bright's disease and apoplexy aged 65 in 1891.
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In2Fish2's Avatar
Australia
124 Posts
 Posted 04/04/2012  10:01 am  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add In2Fish2 to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
to CCF.
I can't help you with your question but if anyone can help you this is the place to ask.
Formerly nancyc
Nevol's Avatar
Australia
5385 Posts
 Posted 04/04/2012  5:37 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Nevol to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
to CCF.
life is a mystery to be lived not a problem to be solved
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Peter THOMAS's Avatar
Australia
2830 Posts
 Posted 04/04/2012  9:30 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Peter THOMAS to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
G'day & welcome to CCF.

I can't remembr where I read it, but it might have been in "The Sovereign" book, that the Type 1 & 2 Sydney portraits are unuque to Sydney.

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Sovereign Debt's Avatar
Australia
51 Posts
 Posted 04/04/2012  10:25 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Sovereign Debt to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
Yes Peter, that's how it seems to me but I wanted to be sure because I felt that just because I haven't come across one, doesn't mean it doesn't exist so I thought I'd enlist the investigative capacity of the wider community.
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Sovereign Debt's Avatar
Australia
51 Posts
 Posted 04/11/2012  6:19 pm  Show Profile   Bookmark this reply Add Sovereign Debt to your friends list Get a Link to this Reply
On reflection, I wonder if a lifetime of working with heavy metals contributed to the early demise of the Wyons. Also, I've recently found on the net & in other sections of this site, that Englishman George T. Morgan was a pupil of William Wyon & after working for Messrs. J.S. & A.B. Wyon, he emigrated to the USA to accept employment by the US mint where he designed the famous Morgan dollar.
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