Two Pound Piece: George IV (obverse); St. George and the Dragon (reverse)
after Benedetto Pistrucci (Italian, 1784–1855)
after a design by Francis Legatt Chantrey (British, 1781–1841)
fabricated by Jean Baptiste Merlen (French, 1769–1850)
1823
- Medium
- gold
- Classification
- Coins
- Dimensions
- Diameter: 4.5 cm (1 3/4 in.)
- Culture
- England, George IV, 1820-1830
- Museum
- Cleveland Museum of Art, Medieval Art
- Credit line
- The Norweb Collection
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Cleveland Museum of Art
About this 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.
