Cleveland Museum of Art

Two Pound Piece: George IV (obverse); St. George and the Dragon (reverse)

Francis Legatt Chantrey

Date

1823

Medium

gold

Culture

England, George IV, 1820-1830

Department

Medieval Art

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

During the reign of King George IV, two-pound pieces were struck for circulation in 1823 only. Pattern pieces appeared in 1824, 1825, and 1826. The king was so disgusted with the caricature of a portrait that Pistrucci placed on the first coins of the reign that the artist was ordered to model a new obverse from a bust by the sculptor Sir Francis Chantrey (1781–1841). Pistrucci refused; it was beneath his dignity to copy the work of another artist. The work was therefore carried out by J. B. Merlen, assistant engraver at the Royal Mint. This is the only modern British coin on which the initials of the Master of the Mint, William Wellesley Pole, appear, on the reverse below the broken lance.

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