Percy Metcalfe: unrealised designs

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Above you see some of Metcalfe's plasters for the Irish coinage of 1928.

Note the ram, which was never used. The bull, the wolfhound, and the pig and piglets are very different from those on the final issued designs.


See also: The coinage of the Irish Free State.

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Percy Metcalfe's unadopted designs for the New Zealand shilling.

For more of his unadopted New Zealand designs, see: Discarded designs from New Zealand's 1933 coinage.

 

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Plaster of crowned portrait of King Edward VIII by Percy Metcalfe.  Copyright: Royal Mint Museum.

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Plaster of crowned portrait of King Edward VIII by Percy Metcalfe.  Copyright: Royal Mint Museum.


Edward famously wanted the side of his head that showed the parting in his hair to be portrayed on his uncrowned portrait.

He did not mind which way he faced on his crowned portrait, because the parting in his hair was not visible!

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King Edward VIII also wanted new reverse designs for his coinage. Metcalfe produced an unadopted design of a seagull for the shilling.


Image copyright: Royal Mint Museum.

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Image copyright of St James's Auctions.

From Numisbids:

Kingdom of Iraq, King Faisal I (1921-1933), a Royal Mint trial in silver by Percy Metcalfe for the first coinage of Iraq, undated (c. 1931), obv. profile bust to r. depicting King Faisal in traditional Arabic dress, rev. blank with the word MODEL in centre, milled edge, wt. 11.28gms., diam. 29mm., matte surfaces, good extremely fine, exceedingly rare, possibly the only example in private hands. This trial was possibly intended (by size) as a silver 100 fils, a denomination not introduced during the reign of Faisal I. Two examples of this piece are known in the British Royal Mint Collection.

My thanks to our forum member eurocoin, for alerting me to the existence of this piece.

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See also: Percy Metcalfe, Coin Designer.

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Turkey, 1 lira, 1935.  Pattern.

Image copyright of The Royal Mint Museum.

Several years ago, while browsing in the National Archives at Kew, London, I noticed a reference in the Royal Mint Annual Report of 1936:

“Turkey—a trial die was made for the reverse of the one lira from a design by Mr Metcalfe showing a wolf.”

As a lover of animal designs, I recorded this in my notes but then forgot about it until 2019. I am very grateful to The Royal Mint Museum, who kindly responded to my query by providing a beautiful photo of the said die and two similar pieces. Those images were accompanied only by some of Metcalfe’s correspondence of 1935, in which he vents his frustration to Royal Mint Deputy Master Sir Robert Johnson at not being able to procure an order from the Turks. The Royal Mint did not always find the time to record in detail the story behind each item, so we do not know why the lira, alone of all Metcalfe’s Turkish designs, was produced at the Royal Mint. We are lucky, however, that this fascinating design was preserved.

In 1936 the Turkish State Mint produced for the reverse of the 1 lira coin an entirely different design from the aforementioned wolf. This suggests that the wolf design was seen but rejected, causing a delay until a satisfactory design was produced in 1937. Nonetheless, this is a wonderful design, and I wonder whether anybody apart from Royal Mint staff has ever seen it before now. Metcalfe’s wolf, of course, looks like no wolf you have ever seen, but that does not rob it of its considerable charm. At first glance the ears suggested to me a jackal and made me think of the Egyptian god Anubis. The wolf has apparently long been a traditional Turkish symbol, so perhaps the Turks were expecting a much fiercer beast than Metcalfe’s version.

See also: Turkey's modernised coinage of 1935.

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Turkey, 1 lira, 1935.  Pattern.

Image copyright of The Royal Mint Museum.

The Royal Mint Museum also provided me with these two additional images. Information given to me by the Royal Mint Museum (RMM):

Details around cutting of tooling and material in the Museum are given below:

1st cut 26.09.1935 started.

2nd cut 30.09.1935.

Reduction Punch started 26.09.1935; Finished 09.10.1935 (in RMM).

Trial die started 11.10.1935; Finished 17.10.1935.

Two silver pieces struck from 2/- blanks with milled collar using MODEL back 25.10.1935—sent to subject.

Two more struck as above 25.10.1935—to Metcalfe.

Electro 23/35 Received 24.09.1935 (in RMM).

Plaster. Received 24.07.1935 (in RMM).


Our forum member africancoins has surmised that “Electro 23/35” probably refers to the 23rd electrotype produced in 1935, but I do not know whether that is correct. Two silver pieces were “sent to subject”—presumably the Turkish authorities—and two to Metcalfe himself.

Nothing about the legend accompanying the wolf design suggests that it was intended for a commemorative coin, and undoubtedly the issued lira design of 1937 fits the circulation series far better than the wolf, stylish though it is. The existence of the wolf design therefore raises various questions. Why was it commissioned? Why is the theme markedly different from the other designs in the series, assuming it was meant to be part of that series? Or was it indeed intended as some sort of commemorative? Why was this die produced at the Royal Mint, after the Turks had minted the aforementioned previous coins themselves? Finally, why, after all the preparation, was this splendid design never ultimately issued as a coin?