The British Virgin Islands has issued commemorative coinage under royal warrant since the early 1970s, but piedfort strikes — double-thickness blanks struck from standard dies — entered the British commemorative market in earnest only in the 1980s under Royal Mint influence. This 2019 piece marks the bicentenary of Victoria's birth in 1819, a monarch who never set foot in the Virgin Islands yet whose reign saw the definitive suppression of the slave trade in the territory following the 1834 Emancipation Act. The piedfort format exists here purely as a premium collector vehicle, struck at double the standard planchet thickness from two troy ounces of fine silver.
The British Virgin Islands has issued commemorative coinage under royal warrant since the early 1970s, but piedfort strikes — double-thickness blanks struck from standard dies — entered the British commemorative market in earnest only in the 1980s under Royal Mint influence. This 2019 piece marks the bicentenary of Victoria's birth in 1819, a monarch who never set foot in the Virgin Islands yet whose reign saw the definitive suppression of the slave trade in the territory following the 1834 Emancipation Act. The piedfort format exists here purely as a premium collector vehicle, struck at double the standard planchet thickness from two troy ounces of fine silver.