1885 Melbourne St George Reverse Sovereign with WW buried - PCGS MS62

Australia, 1885 Melbourne St George Reverse Sovereign with WW buried -

S-3857B, with buried WW initials and BP present on reverse. There are a number of varieties across the young head sovereign series related to the length of the tail, as well as the size and presence of the designers’ initials. One of the harder varieties is found on the 1885-M sovereign, and relates to the size and shape of William Wyon’s initials in the truncation of Queen Victoria. The rare variety has the WW initials buried within the truncation, with the base of the letters intruding into the fields. The WW also has serifs. It is a significant variety that is rarely found in even circulated grades. The coin photographed above is the single-finest of this rare variety graded by PCGS (8/21), and in this grade is rarer than many of the early classic key dates, such as 1871-S and 1872-M. It is an essential coin to the young head sovereign variety set.