This piece commemorates Victoria's assumption of the title Empress of India on January 1, 1877 — a proclamation engineered by Disraeli specifically to outrank the Tsar of Russia and the newly crowned German Emperor, and one Victoria herself had initially resisted as "theatrical." The title was created by the Royal Titles Act of 1876, which gave the coin's referenced year its nominal anchor.
Gibraltar's role as issuer reflects the territory's long practice of producing commemorative crowns for the collector market under Royal Mint licensing arrangements, a revenue stream the Gibraltar Government has sustained since the 1970s.
This piece commemorates Victoria's assumption of the title Empress of India on January 1, 1877 — a proclamation engineered by Disraeli specifically to outrank the Tsar of Russia and the newly crowned German Emperor, and one Victoria herself had initially resisted as "theatrical." The title was created by the Royal Titles Act of 1876, which gave the coin's referenced year its nominal anchor.
Gibraltar's role as issuer reflects the territory's long practice of producing commemorative crowns for the collector market under Royal Mint licensing arrangements, a revenue stream the Gibraltar Government has sustained since the 1970s.