1852 Trial in Lead Adelaide Pound

The first One Pound design, dubbed the Adelaide Pound Type I, features a beaded inner circle on the reverse and a crenulated inner circle on the obverse. This hand produced die was imperfect and subsequently cracked presumably after striking the first circulation strike as no circulation strikes without the die crack are known. The die crack occurs through 'D' of 'DWT' from the rim to the inner circle.

One trial example is known having been struck in lead before the reverse die was damaged and is the only known example of the Adelaide Pound Type I which does not display the die crack (Deacon, H, 1954). This piece resides in the Adelaide National gallery and is unavailable to collectors and was presuming produced to test the die, lead being a softer metal, did not cause the die to break.

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