The 1877 Melbourne was the last branch mint half sovereign to come in the wide ribbon design and is one of the scarcer issues in the series. With an initial mintage of just 80,016, the 1877-M Wide Ribbon was always going to be scarce and when you consider that just 1 in 4 have the wide ribbon design, the actual mintageof this type is probably closer to 20,000. The issue was struck in Melbourne as denoted by the M mintmark under the shield.
The issue can be differentiated from the Narrow ribbon type by the width of the ribbon in Queen Victoria's hair. In addition the issue is struck in higher relief and there are numerous minor positioning differences in the design.
Prior to the Reserve Bank of Australia sale, this issue was extremely scarce with only a handful of coins in private hands, the sale however brought an additional nine pieces to the market with the finest grading EF selling for over $7000. (Downies, 2005) . Other than this piece, one finer example sold at the Quartermaster Auction (Monetarium, 2009) , and one other example has appeared on the market since the RBA sale which was graded good VF and sold for about $2000 in 2007. Note that the mintage figure of 80,016 is combined with the narrow ribbon type.
MintageMintageMintageValues are in AUD and are retail price estimations based on past sales of coins certified by PCGS or NGC and as such values only related to such graded coins. Uncertified coins or coins graded by other services would likely be worth significantly less. For wholesale pricing please refer to the Red Sheet. While all attempts to ensure accurate pricing, data entry errors can occur and as such no warranty is expressed or implied as to the accuracy of any information published on this website. It is important to verify all published sales to ensure the accuracy of the pricing when making any purchase decision. Any personal information provided to us is protected by the Privacy Act 1988.
