[Fragment of a sovereign of Elizabeth I] [graphic].

Engraved depiction of a fragment of a sovereign of Elizabeth I; the obverse with Elizabeth's face is depicted on the left side of the design, and the reverse is depicted on the right side

"Genuine gold pound sovereign of Elizabeth I, retooled to depict her as an old hag and purporting to have been defaced by her in a fury. ... This gold fragment has no known history prior to 1742, when it was acquired by Horace Walpole at the sale of the Earl of Oxford's collection. Walpole described it as 'a fragment of one of her last broad pieces, representing her horridly old and deformed: An entire coin with this image is not known: It is universally supposed that the die was broken by her command, and that some workman of the mint cut out this morsel, which contains barely the face ... it has never been engraved'. As knowledge of the piece did not extend beyond Walpole and his circle, the suggestions as to its origin must be Walpole's own, rather than any real general opinion. ... The motive behind the original work remains unclear. It is obviously an attack on Elizabeth's alleged vanity, but whether the standpoint was political (republican or aristocratic hostility), religious (Catholic or extreme Protestant reaction to the glorification of Elizabeth's role in the English religious settlement), moralistic, or just mischievous cannot now be ascertained."--British Museum online catalogue, description of the original fragment after which this plate was engraved