Five Pound Piece: Victoria (obverse); St. George and the Dragon (reverse) (1887): Art, History and Details

Five Pound Piece: Victoria (obverse); St. George and the Dragon (reverse) (1887) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Benedetto Pistrucci (Italian, 1784–1855); Joseph Boehm (British, 1834–1890).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The obverse design of this piece is usually known as the "Jubilee head," since 1887, the year of its production, was the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria. By Sir Joseph Boehm, R.A., sculptor in ordinary to the queen, it caused a minor storm since it was said the tiny crown made the queen look ridiculous. The queen is said not to have liked the design herself, but she did in fact wear a small crown of this type when she began to find the full-size crown too heavy. The crown may be seen among the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London.

Object facts

• Title: Five Pound Piece: Victoria (obverse); St. George and the Dragon (reverse)
• Date: 1887
• Creator attribution: Benedetto Pistrucci (Italian, 1784–1855); Joseph Boehm (British, 1834–1890)
• Culture: England, Victoria, 1837-1901
• Type: Coins
• Technique: gold
• Dimensions: Diameter: 3.7 cm (1 7/16 in.)
• Collection: MED - Numismatics
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1969.219

A detail from the museum

This piece was not made for circulation but was part of a proof set.

Collection credit

The Norweb Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Emery May Norweb. English Gold Coins, Ancient to Modern Times, On Loan to the Cleveland Museum of Art from the Norweb Collection. [Catalog. 1968.]

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.