Part Three of the prestigious Bentley Collection will be offered at Baldwin's on May 8 in London, with the stunning 1819 George III sovereign headlining the sale.
 It is not known why the sovereign was produced in such small numbers, or why the gold was supplied by private firms rather than the Bank of England |
The 1819 George III coin is one of the rarest of all British sovereigns, with less than 10 examples known in private hands. The Bentley Collection specimen is undoubtedly the finest, warranting an estimate of £150,000-200,000 ($229,500-306,000).
However, there is reported to be a proof version, though this has not been seen since the North Country Collector sale of 1939, and is unknown to modern numismatics.
The coin at auction's rarity stems from the fact that only 3,574 were ever struck, a very small total that could easily have been managed in one day at the Royal Mint. However, for unknown reasons, they were actually produced over five instalments from August to November 1819, with the gold not supplied by the Bank of England as usual, but from private sources, thought to be firms in the City of London.
It is known that the coins were put into circulation. However, the Mint conducted a survey of gold sovereigns in circulation in 1829 and managed to find 100 examples of each date from 1817 onwards, but only two from 1819.
See our review of the second sale of the Bentley Collection here.
Paul Fraser Collectibles stocks a fine selection of rare coins for sale, including this William IV 1831 proof crown, which is a new, unrecorded variety.
