This important trial in lead shows a critical stage in the design. Pistrucci modelled numerous figures of St George spearing the dragon, but the one point on which there was clear indecision was whether the figure on the coinage should be holding a spear, a broken spear, or a short sword. The lead trial shows clearly the line of the spear, but the spear itself is not there. Cameos in the British Museum and the Museo della Zecca in Rome both show the saint holding only the broken handle of his spear as it appears on the proof and patterns of 1817 (see for example lot 1166). Pistrucci was not happy with this. In his note written to accompany the proof Sovereign (lot 188 in the Murdoch sale of March 1904) he explains that he has shortened the spear handle "so that the spear-handle should not pass over the horse, which did not seem tasteful to me." In the final version the spear is replaced by a short sword, and the broken spear lies on the ground, its tip embedded in the dragon's side.
There are several other elements yet to be worked out, most importantly the position of the saint's right leg, which here is stretched forward, as in the adopted design, but Pistrucci has clearly marked an alternative position, the leg bent back underneath the saint. He has also scratched in lines of the cloak under the saint's right arm, an element which also appears in the adopted design.
Other details missing from this trial piece are the saint's left foot, the dragon's left wing and left foreleg, and the groundline which is not fully extended.
Linecar and Stone, possibly following the Nobleman catalogue (lot 23), and both possibly following Forrer (op. cit.), date these lead trials to 1820. In our opinion it is probably earlier.