The Joanna Tansley Collection of Patterns, Proofs and Coining Trials

George V (1910-1936), Trial for the reverse of the Halfcrown, 1926, by F. Derwent Wood [modelled by T.H. Paget], in silver, obv. model, rev. crowned arms in Garter, edge grained, 14.11g/12h (ESC –; Davies –; KM. TS5). Extremely fine and as made, of the highest rarity (£1,000-1,500)

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Joanna Tansley Collection of Patterns, Proofs and Coining Trials.

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The Royal Mint Advisory Committee had come to the conclusion in 1923 that the existing reverse designs of the silver coinage were unsuited to give good impressions using blanks of the binary silver standard. The Committee therefore invited eight artists to submit drawings for new reverse designs. A selection were modelled by the artists, the Committee choosing designs by George Kruger Gray, Francis Derwent Wood and Eric Gill as those for which dies were then engraved and patterns struck. Despite the majority of the Committee recommending that Kruger Gray’s designs be approved for immediate adoption, it was not until 1927 that the King gave Robert Johnson, the Deputy Master, authority to strike coins with Gray’s new designs.

One complete set of reverse trials for the coinage by Derwent Wood is known to the vendor; in addition a shilling, incorrectly attributed to Kruger Gray, was in the ‘Patina’ Sale, lot 1051