5 Pounds - George III Pattern (1820)

About the 1820 5 Pounds - George III Pattern

The 1820 5 Pounds - George III Pattern is a collector 5 pounds coin, struck in 91.67% gold. It weighs 39.96g. Reverse design: St. George on horseback slaying the dragon right,.

25 were struck. It is no longer legal tender, so its value is to collectors only.

Common questions

History and design

The Coinage Act 1816 put Britain on the gold standard, and a Privy Council committee recommended gold coins of ten shillings, twenty shillings, two pounds and five pounds, which the Prince Regent approved on 3 August 1816. The sovereign and half sovereign followed in 1817, but the two larger pieces were not struck. No coin worth more than a guinea had been issued for circulation since 1753, the last year of the five guinea piece.

The five pound denomination was finally struck in 1820, as a pattern only. Wikipedia records about 25 specimens, given to Royal Mint officials, leading numismatists and other notable people, with examples going to the Royal Mint and the British Museum. The Royal Mint Museum still holds one (RMM 1161), weighing 40 g, with a raised lettered edge and the dies turned upside down to each other. The story that Pistrucci had pieces struck as the king lay dying is doubted: William John Hocking and others concluded the dies were finished only after George III's death on 29 January 1820.

The reverse is Benedetto Pistrucci's St George and the dragon, the design he created for the sovereign of 1817, here without the surrounding Garter and with no legend or date. Pistrucci's name appears at lower left and the initials of William Wellesley Pole, Master of the Mint, sit near the broken spear.

The obverse carries the laureate head of George III facing right, with the legend GEORGIUS III D G BRITANNIAR REX F D (George III, by the grace of God, King of the Britains, Defender of the Faith) and the date. The Royal Mint Museum records that Pistrucci was commissioned to model George III's portrait for the gold and silver coins planned for 1817. Heritage credits the piece to Pistrucci and notes that William Wyon is believed to have helped complete it. The edge reads DECUS ET TUTAMEN ANNO REGNI LX in raised letters, the sixtieth year of the reign.

Collecting notes

With about 25 struck and some of those in institutions, examples appear only at major auctions. Check for the raised edge lettering with the regnal year LX, the upside-down die alignment of the Royal Mint Museum piece, and a weight close to 40 g. Heritage describes its example as a proof with mirrored fields and frosted devices.

The matching two pound pattern of 1820 was also never put into production. The five pound piece was next made for the 1826 proof set, the George IV five pounds, and was not struck for circulation until 1887. The reverse is the same St George first seen on the 1817 sovereign.