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1936 Edward VIII Pattern Sovereign - Fantasy Piece
1936 'Pattern' sovereigns are common, but they are all unofficial fantasy coins, without any legal tender or official status.

No official UK gold coins were issued in 1936, so there were no 1936 half sovereigns or sovereigns.

Edward VIII
Edward VIII's reign lasted from 20th January 1936 to 10th December 1936. Coinage dies had already been prepared and put into production for 1936 dated coins of George V, and there appears to be a tradition whereby British coins are never issued for succeeding monarchs in the same year. As would be expected, coinage patterns were prepared for approval, so as to be ready to commence production in 1937. As Edward abdicated before this, then no British coins were issued for circulation in his name or bearing his portrait.
Edward VII coinage was issued by some British colonial territories during 1936, including British West Africa, British East Africa, Fiji, and New Guinea, but none of these carried his portrait.

Official Patterns
Only a very small quantity of official pattern coins were produced for Edward VIII, and these are all dated 1937, as this would have been their first year of issue. None of these were issued to the public for circulation, or to collectors. Any that have ever become available in the market would attract a premium price as an extreme rarity. We believe the least rare of these types would be the brass threepence, as it is our understanding that small quantities were issued to relevant parties, such as amusement machine makers, so that they could prepare suitable coin mechanisms. It is likely these would have been only on loan, and subject to recall and return. The writer, Lawrence Chard can vaguely remember being shown one in the family's Blackpool amusement arcade, probably during the 1950's.

Unofficial Patterns
A number of different issues of fantasy coins or unofficial patterns have been produced at different times. Some of the earlier issues have achieved a small degree of "respectability"; these did not include sovereign patterns. In recent years, larger numbers of "patterns" have been churned out to meet collector demand. While some vendors of these disclose their status quite accurately, the majority unfortunately do not. eBay for example is rife with petty dealers offering these purely medallic items as though they were genuine, original official, rare, and valuable items. Equally unfortunately, there seems to be an almost infinite supply of suckers buying them on eBay, and eBay itself appear to do very little to encourage or enforce accurate and honest descriptions. We have come to the conclusion, with time and experience, that most of the small dealers who offer these in this misleading manner are committing small scale fraud and deceit, and that eBay seems to be only too willing to permit these sharp practices, presumably because they earn fees from the vendors, many of whom are so-called "Power Sellers".

Description
Both sides are similar in appearance to a sovereign, the obverse having a portrait, facing left, of Edward, with the legend:
EDWARD VIII D G REX FID DEF
The reverse has a St George and dragon, with a passable likeness to the Pistrucci original, and the date in the exergue:
1936
The edge is plain.

Alloy
Originally, we were not quite sure of the alloy used to produce these medallions.
As most of them are very badly described by their vendors, it was difficult to be certain about most aspects of them.
The first one we actually saw was not hallmarked, and we usually refrain from acid testing. Since then we have acquired more examples, some of which bear a 9 carat gold hallmark. It therefore seems likely that unhallmarked examples are also made of 9 carat gold.
As the time of this edit of the page, we have three examples in stock. One is unhallmarked, one has a Sheffield hallmark with SAO (Sheffield Assay Office) as its sponsor's mark, but unusually no date letter. The third example was hallmarked at the London Assay Office, and has a P.D. sponsor's mark, and also no date letter.
There are possibly 22ct (.916) or 18ct (.750) gold examples, but as all the specimens we have examined appear to be 9 carat, we have only shown 9ct in the specification table below.
We have also noted vendors stating the weight of these medallions as 6.4 grams, but the heaviest we have weighed was 6.18 grams, and the lightest 6.09 grams.

Specifications
DenominationDiameterWeightAlloyAGW
Unofficial Fantasy Pattern Sovereign22.006.09.3750.0734

Key
Denomination = Face Value
Diameter = Approximate Diameter in millimetres.
Weight = Weight in grams.
Alloy = Fineness of gold.
AGW = Actual fine gold weight in troy ounces.

Prices & Availability
All prices are subject to fluctuation. The prices quoted in the US $ column may be out of date due to currency fluctuations.
Our price for these will normally include a modest premium over the actual gold content.
DateDescriptionMintageAvailabilityPrice £Price $US
1936Unofficial Fantasy Pattern SovereignN/AYes£Ask$Ask

Coins Wanted
We make an active market in almost all world coins, gold or otherwise, including Pattern gold coins, official or otherwise. If you have any of these coins to sell, please contact us, or post them to us for appraisal and offer.

Obverse of 1936 Unofficial Fantasy Pattern Gold Sovereign
Obverse of 1936 Unofficial Fantasy Pattern Gold Sovereign

Medals & Medallions Index

Reverse of 1936 Unofficial Fantasy Pattern Gold Sovereign
Reverse of 1936 Unofficial Fantasy Pattern Gold Sovereign

Reverse of 1936 Unofficial Fantasy Pattern Gold Sovereign
Obverse of 1936 Unofficial Fantasy Pattern Gold Sovereign

Reverse of 1936 Unofficial Fantasy Pattern Gold Sovereign
Reverse of 1936 Unofficial Fantasy Pattern Gold Sovereign

Check Another Date of Half Sovereign



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