Edward VIII sovereign becomes most valuable British coin ever
A RARE Edward VIII gold coin with the king facing the “wrong” direction has become the most valuable British coin ever sold.
The coin, one of the few minted that featured Edward before he abdicated, has been bought for £1million.
The sovereign was snapped up by a private buyer in the UK, having been located by the Royal Mint from a collector in the US. Detectives from the Mint searched high and low for the owner of the coin after receiving a request from the collector.
The 22-carat gold coin was one of a small collection of trial sets that were created when Edward, the Queen’s uncle, ascended the throne, but they were never released to the public as he abdicated in 1936 to marry American divorcee Wallis Simpson.
The coin is also unique in that the former king broke with the tradition of the monarch’s heads facing in opposite directions, because he preferred his left profile, the Royal Mint said.
Rebecca Morgan, head of collector services, said: “The Edward VIII sovereign is one of the rarest and most collectable coins in the world, so it’s no surprise that it has set a new record for British coinage. We were delighted to be able to locate such a special coin for our customer, and bring it back to the UK to make history once more.” The coin’s new owner, a private collector who wants to remain anonymous, told the BBC: “When the opportunity came along, I could not turn it down. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“I’m aware that [£1million] is a lot of money for a coin, but if I did not secure it now, I’d not get the chance again.”
Matt Curtis, also from the Royal Mint, said: “The Edward VIII sovereign is part of numismatic legend – belonging to a series of coins that were never meant to exist, and were hidden from the public for decades.
“This sovereign is significant not only because of its rarity, but because it sits at the heart of an international story.”
The Edward VIII sovereign is one of just two examples thought to exist in private ownership; the remaining four are in museums and institutions, including The Royal Mint Experience.
Sometimes historical artefacts show us not only the past but what might have been. A gold sovereign minted but never used for King Edward VIII hints at a reign of vanity: he defied the tradition of successive monarchs’ heads facing in opposite directions because he thought he looked best in left profile. When George VI took the throne, he carried on as if tradition hadn’t been broken and thus faced the same direction.
The Edwardian sovereign has been sold for a remarkable £1 million, which is something we will never be able to explain to a visitor from an alien planet: paying a lot of money for money, and not very useful money at that, because one would struggle to find a shop happy to take it. That would be the final blow to Edward’s VIII’S ego: first de-throned, then rejected by a cashier at Waitrose.