Specifications
- Denomination
- 5 pounds
- Series
- Una and the Lion
- Designer
- William Wyon
- Years of issue
- 1839
- Composition
- 91.67% Gold, 8.33% Copper
- Weight
- 39.9403 g
- Diameter
- 35.5 mm
- Edge
- Lettered
- KM
- KM-742
- Mintage
- 400
- Key mintages
- Proof pattern struck 1839 alongside the coronation proof sets. Sources cite ~300-500 pieces; Heritage/NGC-cited lots use 400. Originals have lettered edge 'DECUS ET TUTAMEN * ANNO REGNI TERTIO'; later restrikes (produced into the 1880s) have plain edges.
Melt value: $5,114.73
William Wyon's 1839 gold £5 — Victoria as Lady Una guiding the British lion, among the most beautiful coins ever struck.
History
- Designed by William Wyon, Chief Engraver of the Royal Mint, the 1839 Una and the Lion five-pound piece is counted among his most famous works; it was made to commemorate the beginning of Queen Victoria’s reign (Bonhams; Royal Mint Museum, accessed 2026-09-16).
- The reverse shows the queen as Lady Una from Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene (1590), leading the British lion — the first occasion when a British monarch was depicted on a coin as a fictional character (Bonhams, accessed 2026-09-16).
- The reverse reads DIRIGE DEUS GRESSUS MEOS (‘May the Lord direct my steps’) above, with the date in Roman numerals MDCCCXXXIX in the exergue; the obverse shows Wyon’s Young Head portrait of Victoria facing left with the legend VICTORIA D:G: BRITANNIARUM REGINA F:D:, framed by an ornate toothed border, with W. WYON R.A. at the rim (Bonhams, accessed 2026-09-16).
- About 300 examples were struck for inclusion in the British Coronation sets of 1839; later accounts say pieces were struck on demand and sold by the Mint until 1886, in plain- and inscribed-edge varieties, with perhaps 400 total (Bonhams; Wikipedia, accessed 2026-09-16).
- It is the lightest of the British £5 coins: Bonhams reports surviving pieces weighing 38.7–39.3 grams, against the standard £5 specification of 39.94 g of 22-carat gold at 36.02 mm diameter (Bonhams; Wikipedia, accessed 2026-09-16).
- The standard catalogue references are KM 742 and Spink 3851 (coinscatalog.net; National Numismatic Collection, accessed 2026-09-16).
- The design has been remastered for modern reissues — including the Royal Mint’s 2019 Great Engravers five-sovereign and East India Company/St Helena editions — which must not be confused with the original 1839 pieces (Britannia Coin Company, accessed 2026-09-16).
Specifications
- composition
- designers
- diameter
- edge
- weight
Collector notes
- Check the edge: plain and inscribed-edge varieties are reported for this issue, so know which you are buying (Wikipedia, accessed 2026-09-16).
- Verify weight (39.94 g standard; surviving pieces run 38.7–39.3 g) and diameter before believing an example, and buy certified — fakes exist of this famous coin (Bonhams; Wikipedia, accessed 2026-09-16).
- Modern remastered versions — the Royal Mint’s 2019 Great Engravers five-sovereign and the East India Company/St Helena editions — are not original 1839 pieces and must not be confused with them (Britannia Coin Company, accessed 2026-09-16).
- The recorded mintage estimates vary (about 300 for the 1839 Coronation sets per Bonhams; perhaps 400 total per Wikipedia), so treat any ‘survivor’ figure with scepticism and think in certification counts instead (Bonhams; Wikipedia, accessed 2026-09-16).
- This is a six-figure coin in high grades — a buy-for-the-ages collectible, not a flip (guidance).
Market check
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