Lot 1038

Description

George V, 1923. Diagnostic die breaks both sides, four Xs scratched into the quarter points of the inner circle, otherwise brown and red, uncirculated and but for the Xs, would have been the finest we have handled.

This coin was collected by Karl Gunnar Strom, a native of the Swedish Island of Aland, who jumped ship in Sydney in February 1923. Being an illegal immigrant he headed up the coast to north Queensland with a fellow deserter intent on stowing away on a ship headed for the US. The pair went cane cutting but with the onset of the Depression Strom headed south in early 1930, eventually settling in Slacky Flat near Bulli.

The graffiti was done in all probability as acknowledgement of the Castlemaine Brewery Company adopting the (four) XXXX brand in 1924.