George IV (1820-1830), George IV, Coronation, 1821, a gold medal by B. Pistrucci, bust left, rev. Victory crowning King, attendants at left, edge engraved (Captain The Honble Edward Cust, MP for Grantham), 35mm, 31.41g (BHM 1070; E 1146). Scuffed in fields, particularly the reverse, otherwise about extremely fine; in original red shagreen case (£700-800)

Sir Edward Cust, Bt (1794-1878), general and military historian; educ. Eton; gazetted a cornet in the 16th Light Dragoons, 15 March 1810, present at the battle of Fuentes d’Onor; promoted to Lt, 14th Light Dragoons, 27 December 1810; present at the sieges of Ciudad Rodrigo and Badajoz and the battles of Salamanca, Vittoria, the Pyrenees, Nivelle and Nive (MGS medal with 7 clasps); promoted to Capt, 16th Light Dragoons, December 1813; appointed equerry to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg (then Hon. Col. of the 16th, subsequently King Leopold I of Belgium), 1816; served as Conservative MP for Grantham, 1818-26, and for Lostwithiel, 1826-32; advanced to Major, 1821, Lt-Col, 1826; made a Knight Commander of the Guelphic Order of Hannover, 1831; subsequently Colonel, 1841, Major-General 1851, Lt-General and Colonel of the 16th Light Dragoons, 1859, full General 1866; master of ceremonies to Queen Victoria for a number of years, resigning on grounds of ill-health in February 1876; senior magistrate for the Hundred of Wirral; buried at Belton, near Grantham. Further biographical detail is sold with the lot