Two Pound Piece: George IV (obverse); St. George and the Dragon (reverse) (1823): Art, History and Details

Two Pound Piece: George IV (obverse); St. George and the Dragon (reverse) (1823) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Benedetto Pistrucci (Italian, 1784–1855); Francis Legatt Chantrey (British, 1781–1841); Jean Baptiste Merlen (French, 1769–1850).

The work and its context

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

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.

Object facts

• Title: Two Pound Piece: George IV (obverse); St. George and the Dragon (reverse)
• Date: 1823
• Creator attribution: Benedetto Pistrucci (Italian, 1784–1855); Francis Legatt Chantrey (British, 1781–1841); Jean Baptiste Merlen (French, 1769–1850)
• Culture: England, George IV, 1820-1830
• Type: Coins
• Technique: gold
• Dimensions: Diameter: 4.5 cm (1 3/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Numismatics
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1969.214

A detail from the museum

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.

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.