29/08/2021
Obverse: Young uncrowned portrait ('Young Head') of Queen Victoria left, legend around.
Lettering: VICTORIA D:G: BRITANNIARUM REGINA F:D:
Translation: Victoria by the Grace of God Queen of the Britains Defender of the Faith
Reverse: Crowned standing figure of the Queen as the character Una (see below), holding orb and sceptre, with standing lion left, legend above, date in exergue.
Lettering:
DIRIGE DEUS GRESSUS MEOS.
MDCCC###IX
W. WYON R.A.
Translation:
May God direct my steps
1839
Edge
Plain with or without incuse legend
Lettering: DECUS ET TUTAMEN ANNO REGNI TERTIO
Translation: An ornament and a safeguard, third year of reign
Comments:
The allegorical figure on the reverse depicts Queen Victoria in the form of Una, or Truth. Una is the main female character in the poem The Faerie Queene by Edmund Spenser, one of the longest poems in the English language, written between 1590 and 1596 in a new verse form known as the Senserian stanza. The figure of Una in Spenser's poem is actually meant to be Queen Elizabeth I and the figure of the lion represents the nation of Britain under Elizabeth's guardianship.