Queen Victoria's connection to Gibraltar was largely administrative, but her 1887 Golden Jubilee prompted the colony to issue a formal address of loyalty — one of hundreds sent from across the empire, though Gibraltar's carried the particular weight of a garrison population living under permanent strategic pressure. The piedfort format, struck at twice the standard flan thickness, has been a British and Commonwealth collector convention since the Royal Mint revived it in 1982.
Queen Victoria's connection to Gibraltar was largely administrative, but her 1887 Golden Jubilee prompted the colony to issue a formal address of loyalty — one of hundreds sent from across the empire, though Gibraltar's carried the particular weight of a garrison population living under permanent strategic pressure. The piedfort format, struck at twice the standard flan thickness, has been a British and Commonwealth collector convention since the Royal Mint revived it in 1982.