25mm, 9ct gold. 10.8g. Obverse after Wyon.
Obverse featuring the same young head portrait of Victoria that was used on the 1837 Guildhall medal and, more widely, on the Penny Black stamp. The reverse with border around rose. Edge engraved '1987 D.J Springbett' and hallmarked for 9ct gold, J.R Gaunt & Son.
About Uncirculated and housed in fitted case of issue. Extremely rare and the first gold example of this medal we have ever seen.
David John Springbett, FRPSL (1938–2022) was a British philatelist and former insurance broker, who signed the Roll of Distinguished Philatelists in 2004. Springbett was President of the Grand Prix Club, a fellow of the Royal Philatelic Society London, President of The Revenue Society and a former Chairman of the Stanley Gibbons company.
He was Chairman of The Stamp Show 2000 in Earls Court, London and was involved in planning for an alternative stamp exhibition to the London 2010 International Stamp Exhibition. The alternative show would have been based at the Excel conference centre in east London, but the project was abandoned when the Fédération Internationale de Philatélie (FIP) gave the London 2010 show approved status.
In 2001, Springbett edited and compiled a biographical guide to the more than seventy philatelists who have been awarded a Grand Prix award at a philatelic exhibition held between 1950 and 2000.
His philatelic interests lay in revenue stamps and the large key plate stamps of Nyasaland. He won a Grand Prix medal for his exhibit of Straits Settlements at Bangkok in 1993 and was a candidate for a Grand Prix with his Nyasaland revenue stamps in Australia in 1999 and Nyasaland key types at Istanbul 1999.