Token of Victoria in 1891

Alexandrina Victoria commonly known as Queen Victoria was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1837 until her death on 1901. Her 63 years long reign is known as the Victorian era. It was a period of industrial, political, scientific, and military change within the United Kingdom, and was marked by a great expansion of the British Empire.

Throughout the reign of Victoria Queen, coins mintages are divided in four eras. 1840 to 1850 was continuous legend under East India Company. Coins with continuous legend refer to the legend VICTORIA QUEEN running continuously over the Queen’s head. 1850 to 1860 was divided legend under East India Company. Coins with divided legend on Obverse VICTORIA QUEEN is divided by Queen’s head. The direct rule of the British Crown on the Indian subcontinent started on 1958 was the British Raj was lasted up to 1947. The region under British control was commonly called India in contemporaneous usage and included areas directly administered by the United Kingdom, which were collectively called British India. 1862 to 1876 was imperial coinage under crown administration. 1877 to 1901 was Victoria Empress while the British Parliament voted to grant Victoria Queen the additional title of Empress of India on 1876.

During the reign of Victoria Queen, an unknown token was identified, most of those contained a date of 1891. According to Numista (N# 144776); obverse was primitive image of Queen Victoria with lettering ‘VKTGRIA D:C: BRITTRECF:D’ and reverse was Crown with lettering ‘VICTORIACOE INDA’. But some different reference of obverse and reverse found in other sources (Google). It was not uniform machine strike token; therefore, significant variation may be observed. I also found similar coin with almost same obverse and reverse. But lettering at reverse was ‘VICTORIACO INDA’ with missing ‘E’! Weight was around 1.02g with a dimension of 13.8mm. It was like a light coper colour coin, seems like golden colour at obverse. Frank Van Valen described about this coin in stacksbowers.com, that the token is just 13.4 mm in diameter. He further described that, the obverse a bust left portrait of Victoria with an appearance of an early byzantine gold coin’s effigy is surrounded by the legend VVTGRIAD:G:BRITTAINA in crude and mostly meaningless lettering. The reverse features a central circle with a crown and the date, 1891, within, and with VICTORIACOE INDA around. Description VICTORIA COE INDA 1891 was an unknown unsearched token or coin. May be this token was minted for a short time to celebrate any occasion during the era of Queen Victoria!

 


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