Old Head coinage
It replaced the Jubilee coinage, struck since 1887, which had been widely criticised both for the portrait of the Queen, and because the reverses of most of the coins did not state their monetary values.
New designs for some of the silver coinage were inaugurated, created either by Brock or by Edward Poynter, and all denominations less than the crown, or five-shilling piece, stated their values.
Although Victoria was not authorised to use this title in the United Kingdom, the Prime Minister, Lord Salisbury, and his cabinet had approved its use on the coinage in 1892 because the coins also circulated in the colonies.
They continued to be struck until the death of Victoria in 1901 necessitated a change of design for the obverse; beginning in 1902, the coinage bore the head of her successor, Edward VII.
In September 1889, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Goschen, wrote to Victoria, "as the general discussion on the Jubilee coinage had subsided, and the public appeared to have got used to the new coin, I thought that it might possibly be best to let the matter rest for a while".
[6][7] At its second meeting, on 27 February, the committee considered an open competition for new coinage designs, but instead decided to invite several artists (all Royal Academicians or associate members of the academy) to submit proposals.
Entrants were offered £150 for their labours, an amount the Illustrated London News considered inadequate, and two artists declined the invitation.
[9] At the committee's next meeting on 23 December 1891, it was decided to ask Brock to alter his first obverse in imitation of the Ashanti medal of 1874.
This process left a number of small lines on the steel of the hubs; these were removed by De Saulles under Brock's supervision.
[21] Except for the half crown, the coins bear on the obverse the legend VICTORIA DEI GRA BRITT REGINA FID DEF IND IMP.
On the half crown, the Latin legend is divided VICTORIA DEI GRA BRITT REG on the obverse, with FID DEF IND IMP on the reverse.
The wording, DECUS ET TUTAMEN, was said to have been suggested by a Mr Evelyn based on a vignette of Cardinal de Richelieu's Greek Testament.
The plume on the saint's helmet, which had featured in Pistrucci's original design for the five-pound and two-pound pieces before later being removed and then restored in 1887, was redesigned.
[35] Sir John Craig, in his history of the Royal Mint, considered Brock's efforts "the least unsuccessful" of the submitted designs.
[25] Leonard Forrer, in his 1916 Biographical Dictionary of Medallists, deemed the obverse "a splendid portrait of the Queen by that scholarly sculptor, Sir Thomas Brock", though he characterised Poynter's reverses as "not very satisfactory".
[38] The Pall Mall Gazette noted that, "it would be damning them with faint praise merely to say that they are of superior appearance to the Jubilee issue", and that though the use of the power to include the Empress of India title was belated, it was unquestionably valid, since British coins were legal tender in the colonies.
[39] The Lancaster Gazetter wrote on 8 February, "The new coinage starts at a great advantage, for it supplants some of the most unfortunate designs that the Mint has ever put in circulation.
In place of that ridiculous topknot toy crown of the Jubilee period, Mr. Brock puts a simple, perfectly becoming tiara, over the back part of which and down to the shoulders droops a veil in light, graceful folds.
The Liberal Unionist MP, James Parker Smith, stated in the House of Commons that the new sovereigns reminded him of the whist counters that could be purchased at twenty for tuppence; "he did not think anyone who was conversant with coins would be quite satisfied with it.
[42] Victoria herself may have been dissatisfied with the new obverse, for the new chancellor, William Harcourt, wrote to her on 1 February 1893 expressing "his entire concurrence in Your Majesty's View that the Queen's head in the new coinage leaves much to be desired both in likeness and execution".
[43] There was some objection from Wales to the exclusion of any emblem of that country from the coinage, given the depiction of symbols of England, Scotland and Ireland, and some wanted a leek or dragon included.
[44] Fremantle deemed the new obverse "almost the popular portrait of the Queen" and praised De Saulles for his part in "the favourable reception of coins both by experts and by the public generally".
[46] In 1895, De Saulles adapted Brock's obverse for the bronze pieces,[37] making modifications to their reverses, and these were made current by a proclamation dated 11 May 1895.
Coins depicting her, dated 1901 and using the obverse by Brock, continued to be struck until the new coinage (designed by De Saulles) for her successor, Edward VII, was ready in May 1902.
