Sovereign shows off vain side of an abdicated king’s personality
A RARE Edward VIII gold sovereign has gone on display showing how the monarch broke with tradition – by demanding his profile faced in the wrong direction.
Edward thought his left side, showing his side parting, was better than his right, which featured a solid fringe, and insisted this was used.
He was breaking with tradition because coins struck following the accession of a monarch normally show the new King or Queen looking in the opposite direction to royal profiles on their predecessor’s coins.
The gold sovereign – part of a set – was never issued because just as the Royal Mint was gearing up to produce a full set of coins the King abdicated, renouncing the throne on December 10 1936 to be with divorcee Wallis Simpson.
Humphrey Paget created the coinage portrait of Edward and on one occasion when he went for a sitting with the King, the monarch did not turn up and could not be found. A courtier reportedly said “this would never have happened in his father’s time”.
Graham Dyer, of the Royal Mint, said: “The tradition of the monarch’s head facing in the opposite direction to his predecessor dates back to King Charles II in the 17th Century.”
The rare sovereign has gone on display at the Royal Mint Experience in in Llantrisant, South Wales.