1917 London sovereign

[Mycoins 0]

Hello,

I am new to predecimal.com. I registered here because I am at the present researching about one of the greatest rarities in modern British coins. It is believed that almost the entire lot was used for payments to the US where certainly all coins would have met the melting pot after gold was abandoned by Roosevelt in 1933, while those who remained at the Bank of England are likely to have been melted as well during the 1930s.

But why was the sovereign of 1917 struck afterall ? Just for backing up the gold reserve ?
I was quit astonished when I got over the following note from an auctions description from the 32. St James auction :

The most intriguing possible explanation for their existence appears in Cullimore Allen’s reference (Spink, 1965, page 15), as follows in his words: ‘There are many stories about the sovereigns said to have been minted for the use of T.E. Lawrence during his activities in the Middle East’. The Arab Revolt against the Turks took place during this exact time, with Lawrence’s famous siege of Aqaba occurring on 6 July 1917.

Well, well, well. Isn`t that a nice one ? Can there be some throuth in this or is it simply a good story ?Undoubtedly it seems as quit a thrill to see Lawrence being connected to a numismatist rarity. Who does not immediately think of the famous scene from  Lawrence of Arabia " showing Antony Quinn figuring Arab prince Auda who after the fall of Aquaba ransacks a trunk throwing Turkish papermoney into the air while shouting " There is no gold in Aqaba "

Payments to the US or to some Arab tribes ? Was an issue of about 1.000.000 sovereigns sufficient for both ?
And how about the 1916 London sovereign ? Theoretically also this issue could have been used for backing up the Arab campain and most certainly also the 1916 has vanished almost entirely,but as the marked does not care it ca be obtained without a hefty premium.

Does anyone here  know more about the last WWI London sovereigns ?

[Mr T 179]

I would have thought a lot more examples would be extant if they were spent in the Middle East - they would likely have had less need to melt them I would have thought.

Melted in America certainly gets put forward a lot but surely there must be record of such payments if they happened?

As to why there were struck, probably for the same reason sovereigns continued to be struck after paper money came into use - to have gold in a convenient form I assume. I didn't think they were intended to circulate anyway.

[VickySilver 832]

Don't think they would be listed separately from all other sovs in specie payment. I am still not sure that these are not just a bit more common than thought and IMO overpriced in the current market. Let's not forget the counterfeits out there as at least one discussed on these boards. Romance is fine, but a bit fantastical so I think it hard to ascribe a lot of value to a coin even if it had been touched by the great Lawrence. These are but coins after all.