Lot Essay
The Montagu sale catalogue of 1890 notes that "this portrait was rejected by the Queen at once." It is interesting to note that this piece is struck on a flan that is of a similar diameter to a sovereign rather than that of a shilling. Though this obverse has been used for a series of pattern shillings; it poses the question that could this pattern be actually for a sovereign, especially with thte gilt nature of this piece.