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Cape Colony: Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee from R.D. Irwin, Cape Town

Cape Colony: Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee from R.D. Irwin, Cape TownCape Colony: Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee from R.D. Irwin, Cape Town
Cape Colony: Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee from R.D. Irwin, Cape TownCape Colony: Queen Victoria Diamond Jubilee from R.D. Irwin, Cape Town
Form: Circular. Pierced at 12 o’clock for a ring to a narrow red-white-blue ribbon
By: Heaton Mint, Birmingham (?)
Date: 1897
Ref:  AM2: 57; Laidlaw: 0276b;
Variations:
SizeMetalMassValue
39.0 mmWhite Metal20.3 gm$20
38.9 mmBronzed White Metal20.8 gm$20

Edge: Plain.

Obverse: Veiled and diademed head of Queen Victoria, left. No maker’s name below truncation. Legend on a raised and roughened band: “IN HER REIGN LITERATURE SCIENCE & ART FLOURISHED. THE COLONIES WERE UNITED. LEGISLATION FOR THE AMELIORATION OF THE PEOPLE WAS ENACTED.”. Stop at the foot.

Reverse: Across: “VIVAT REGINA (large letters) / (ornamental line) / “HER COURT WAS PURE; HER LIFE SERENE, / A THOUSAND CLAIMS TO REVERENCE CLOSED / IN HER AS MOTHER WIFE AND QUEEN.” / TENNYSON (small letters) / DIAMOND JUBILEE / CAPE TOWN 1897. / PRESENTED BY / R.D. IRWIN”

Notes: R.D. Irwin was probably the successor of J.W. Irwin, tea merchant and grocer.

This medal shares the same obverse as Laidlaw 0276a and 0276c and all three have a similar reverse form.