South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands Coins

Obverse of 2003 South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands £2 Silver Proof Crown

Countries

Reverse of 2003 South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands £2 Silver Proof Crown

According to the CIA:-

The islands, which have large bird and seal populations, lie approximately 1,000 km east of the Falkland Islands and have been under British administration since 1908 - except for a brief period in 1982 when Argentina occupied them. Grytviken, on South Georgia, was a 19th and early 20th century whaling station. Famed explorer Ernest SHACKLETON stopped there in 1914 en route to his ill-fated attempt to cross Antarctica on foot. He returned some 20 months later with a few companions in a small boat and arranged a successful rescue for the rest of his crew, stranded off the Antarctic Peninsula. He died in 1922 on a subsequent expedition and is buried in Grytviken. Today, the station houses scientists from the British Antarctic Survey. Recognizing the importance of preserving the marine stocks in adjacent waters, the UK, in 1993, extended the exclusive fishing zone from 12 nm to 200 nm around each island.

According to Wikipedia:-

South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands (SGSSI) is a British overseas territory in the southern Atlantic Ocean. It is a remote and inhospitable collection of islands, consisting of South Georgia - which measures approximately 100 miles (160 km) by 18 miles (29 km) and is by far the largest island in the territory - and a group of smaller islands known as the South Sandwich Islands.
There is no native population on any of the islands, and the only present inhabitants are the British Government Officer, scientists, and support staff from the British Antarctic Survey who maintain scientific bases at Bird Island and at the capital, King Edward Point, as well as museum staff at nearby Grytviken.
The British claim to sovereignty of South Georgia dates from 1775, and that of the South Sandwich Islands from 1908. The territory of "South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands" was formed in 1985; previously it had been governed as part of the Falkland Islands Dependencies. Argentina claimed South Georgia (Argentinian name: Georgias del Sur) in 1927, and the South Sandwich Islands (Islas Sandwich del Sur) in 1938. Argentina maintained a naval station, Corbeta Uruguay, on Thule Island in the South Sandwich Islands from 1976 until 1982 when it was closed by the United Kingdom. The Argentine claim over SGSSI contributed to the 1982 Falklands War, during which Argentine forces briefly occupied South Georgia, and remains unresolved to this day (see also Sovereignty of the Falkland Islands).

South Georgia
The Island of South Georgia is said to have been first sighted in 1675 by Anthony de la Roché, a London merchant, and was named Roche Island on some early maps. It was sighted by a commercial Spanish ship named León operating out of St Malo June 28 or 29[1], 1756, and in 1775 by Captain James Cook, who, after dismissing his find as "not worth the discovery," went on to survey and map the island, make the first landing, claim the territory for the Kingdom of Great Britain, and name it "the Isle of Georgia" in honour of King George III. British arrangements for the government of South Georgia were first established under the 1843 British Letters Patent.
In 1882 a German expedition sent out to observe the transit of Venus was stationed at Royal Bay on the south-east side of the island.
Throughout the 19th century South Georgia was a sealers' base and, in the following century, a whalers' base until whaling ended in the 1960s. The first land-based whaling station, and first permanent habitation, was established at Grytviken in 1904 by Norwegian Carl Anton Larsen. It operated through his Argentine Fishing Company which, "protected by the Argentine laws and under its flag, settled in Grytviken".[2][3] The station remained in operation until 1965.
Whaling stations operated under leases granted by the (British) Governor of the Falkland Islands. The seven stations, all on the north coast with its sheltered harbours were, starting from the west:
From 1905 the Argentine Meteorological Office cooperated in maintaining the meteorological observatory at Grytviken under the British lease requirements of the whaling station until these changed in 1949.
In 1908 the United Kingdom established constitutional arrangements for its possessions in the South Atlantic listed by a Letters Patent as "the groups of islands known as South Georgia, the South Orkneys, the South Shetlands, and the Sandwich Islands, and the territory known as Graham's Land, situated in the South Atlantic Ocean to the south of the 50th parallel of south latitude, and lying between the 20th and the 80th degrees of west longitude". In 1917 the Letters Patent were modified, applying the 'sector principle' used in the Arctic; the new scope of the Falkland Islands Dependencies was extended to comprise "all islands and territories whatsoever between the 20th degree of west longitude and the 50th degree of west longitude which are situated south of the 50th parallel of south latitude; and all islands and territories whatsoever between the 50th degree of west longitude and the 80th degree of west longitude which are situated south of the 58th parallel of south latitude", thus reaching the South Pole. It was not until 1948 that an interpretation was conceived to allege that the original 1908 Letters Patent might have encompassed parts of the South American mainland as well as the Falklands, making the latter dependencies of themselves.
From 1909 an administrative centre and residence was established at King Edward Point on South Georgia, near the whaling station of Grytviken. A permanent local British administration and resident Magistrate exercised effective possession, enforcement of British law, and regulation of all economic, scientific and other activities in the territory, which was then governed as the Falkland Island Dependencies.
Argentina claimed South Georgia in 1927.
During World War II, the Royal Navy deployed an armed merchant vessel to patrol South Georgian and Antarctic waters against German raiders, along with two four-inch shore guns (still present) protecting Cumberland Bay and Stromness Bay, manned by volunteers from among the Norwegian whalers. The base at King Edward Point was expanded as a research facility in 1949/1950 by the British Antarctic Survey (until 1962 called Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey).
The Falklands War was precipitated on 19 March 1982 when a group of Argentinians, posing as scrap metal merchants, occupied the abandoned whaling station at Leith Harbour on South Georgia. On April 3 the Argentine troops attacked and occupied Grytviken. Among the commanding officers of the Argentine Garrison was Alfredo Astiz, a Captain in the Argentine Navy who, years later, was convicted of felonies committed during the Dirty War in Argentina.
The island was recaptured by British forces on 25 April (Operation Paraquat). From 1985, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands ceased to be administered as a Falkland Islands Dependency and became a separate territory. The King Edward Point base, which had become a small military garrison after the Falklands war, returned to civilian use in 2001 and is now operated by the British Antarctic Survey.
South Sandwich Islands
The southern eight islands of the Sandwich Islands Group were discovered by James Cook in 1775; the northern three by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen in 1819.[clarification needed] They were named "Sandwich Land" by Cook after the 4th Earl of Sandwich, 1st Lord of the Admiralty. The word "South" was added to distinguish them from the "Sandwich Islands", now known as "Hawaii".
The United Kingdom formally annexed the South Sandwich Islands in 1908, grouping them with other British-held territory in Antarctica as the Falkland Islands Dependencies.
Argentina challenged British sovereignty in the South Sandwich Islands on several occasions, and claimed the Islands in 1938. From January 25, 1955 through summer of 1956 Argentina maintained the summer station Teniente Esquivel at Ferguson Bay on the Southeastern coast of Thule Island. From 1976 to 1982, Argentina maintained a naval base named Corbeta Uruguay, at Port Faraday, in the lee (southern East coast) of the same island. Although the British discovered the presence of the Argentine base in 1978, no effort was made to remove them until after the Falklands War. The base was eventually removed on June 20, 1982.

South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands Coins
The currency in the Islands is the pound sterling.
South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands issued its own coins for the first time only in 2000, only commemorative coins are issued forsale to collectors.
We usually have in stock at least a few South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands coins.

Coin Specifications

Denomination	Description	Diameter	Weight	Alloy	AMW
£2	Silver Proof	38.61	28.28	925	0.8410

Notes
Diameter = Diameter in millimetres.
Weight = Weight in grams.
Alloy = Fineness of alloy in parts per thousand.
AMW = Actual weight of pure precious metal content.
Please notice that the 50 pence coins are crown sized.

South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands Coins For Sale

Date	Denomination	Description	Mintage	Grade	Availability	Price £	Price $	€Ask
2003	£2*	Prince William's 21st Birthday, Silver Proof	.925	FDC	Yes	£30	$60	€45
2006	£2	Silver Proof Crown Collection - Queen Elizabeth II 80th Birthday	.925	Proof	Yes	See Page	Ask	Ask

Notes
Mintage = Quantity issued, where known, otherwise issue limit.
* According the the coin, it is 1 £2; according the the accompanying information sheets issued by Westminster, it is a Fifty Pence! We can hardly believe it, but this is the third error we have found in one of their cetificates in three days. Do these guys get anything right?

Fakes Alert!
In July 2009, we received an -email alert from The Pobjoy Mint about a series of unauthorised coins of the South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands:

The Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands has been alerted to the existence of a collection of nine metallic pieces depicting various UK places and which purport to be coins issued by this Administration. The obverse of these apparently Bi-Metallic pieces carries an effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the wording South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the date 2008.

We would welcome any information from any party who may be able to assist in tracing the producers of these fake coins.

PRESS RELEASE
FAKE “COINS” OF SOUTH GEORGIA AND THE SOUTH SANDWICH ISLANDS
The Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands has been alerted to the existence of a collection of nine metallic pieces depicting various UK places and which purport to be coins issued by this Administration.  The obverse of these apparently Bi-Metallic pieces carries an effigy of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, the wording South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and the date 2008.
Reverse images recorded are Chester Penny, Edinburgh, Horse Guards of London, Lincoln Cathedral, The Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Westminster School, Windsor Castle, and York Castle Museum.
The Government of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands wishes to state categorically that these Bi-Metallic pieces should be treated as fakes for the following reasons:-

• They have been issued without the authority of the Administration.
• No legislation exists to allow for coins to be produced under the name of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands which are Bi-Metallic or base metal, dual plated.
• Such designs have not been presented to Buckingham Palace for approval by Her Majesty The Queen as is required for all coin designs of the Administration which bear Her Majesty's effigy on the obverse.
• Copyright for the image of Her Majesty used on these fake pieces rests with Ian Rank-Broadley FRBS FSNAD and this uncouped image has been licensed exclusively for use by Pobjoy Mint Ltd which company confirms that it has not produced these items.

The Administration of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands takes this matter very seriously and will, in conjunction with Pobjoy Mint Ltd and the relevant external Authorities, take all actions possible to identify the producers of these fake items and welcomes any information from any party who may be able to assist in tracing said producers.

Postage & Packing:
UK: At buyer's Risk £3.50 or
Fully Insured £9 (Usually by Royal Mail Special Delivery)
USA: Airmail at buyer's risk $10 or
Fully Insured $20
For further details, please see our Postage & Packing page.

Order Form
Order Form - USA

Order Form - Rest of World

South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands Gold Coins
For South Georgia & South Sandwich coins in gold, please look at the South Georgia & South Sandwich Coins page of our Tax Free Gold website.

Coins Wanted
We make an active market in almost all world coins, silver or otherwise, including South Georgia and South Sandwich Islands coins. If you have any of these coins to sell, please contact us, or post them to us for appraisal and offer.

If you want to find the value of a coin you own, please take a look at our page I've Found An Old Coin, What's It Worth?

If you have an enquiry about any of our Silver Coins,, we'd be happy to answer you, but please note it may be quicker to telephone us. Please see the Contact Us page of our website.