Nomos 31

GREECE. Georgios I, 1863-1913. Pattern 5 Drachmai 1873 (Silver, 37 mm, 25.09 g, 6 h), Paris, struck from dies by Albert-Désiré Barre, reeded edge. ΓΕΩΡΓΙΟΣ Α! ΒΑΣΙΛΕΥΣ ΤΩΝ ΕΛΛΗΝΩΝ / 1873 Youthful head of George I to left; below truncation, in very tiny letters, BAPPE. Rev. ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΟΝ ΤΗΣ ΕΛΛΑΔΟΣ Crowned and mantled coat of arms of the Kingdom of Greece; below, 5 ΔΡΑΧΜΑΙ; in the lower left field, ESSAI in tiny letters . Divo P76 (this coin). Karamitsos T.55 (this coin mentioned). KM E12. Tzamalis, Νομίσματα Ελληνικού Χώρου, Δ40 (this coin). Beautifully toned. Graded by NGC "PF 63". Top pop in NGC and PCGS. Cert number: 2908888-006.

From the El-Greco Collection of Modern Greek Rarities, and from the Asprogerakas collection, Schweizerischer Bankverein 9, 30 January 1980 743. Published by Tzamalis in 1977 and by J-P Divo in 1969, and possibly ex Hess-Leu 30, 27 April 1966, 481.

This is an extremely rare coin and, in the opinion of the cataloguer, one of the most beautiful of all the pattern 5 Drachmai produced for Georgios I. It the first fully complete pattern 5 drachmai made by Barre - the uniface pattern of the proceeding lot should be related with this issue, and is the only 5 Drachmai pattern that bears the youthful head of Georgios I. It should be noted, that the obverse die was not formed by the same master die, which was used for the obverses of the silver coins minted between 1868 and 1873. It is, rather, a completely new die made by Barre which not only shows the king's portrait in a slightly more mature way, but also rendered in a much more medallic engraving style. In addition, the proportions of the engravers signature differs from the way it appears on the other 5 Drachmai coins. In any case, this pattern was not approved. In 1875 another one was commissioned (see lot 153), bearing the more mature head of the king that was eventually approved.