On arrival at
Dover, Pistrucci had difficulty with Customs, possibly caused by Bonelli's malice. Once he was able to, he journeyed to London. He had letters of introduction to several people, and
Charles Konig, Keeper of Minerals at the
British Museum, proved a loyal friend. Through Konig, Pistrucci met the famous naturalist,
Sir Joseph Banks, who commissioned the artist to do a portrait of him. While Banks was sitting for Pistrucci, the connoisseur
Richard Payne Knight came by, anxious to show Sir Joseph a cameo fragment he had purchased, and which he dated to Ancient Greece. After Banks praised it highly, Pistrucci, on examining it, identified it as his own work, displaying the secret mark he had placed on it. The incident increased Pistrucci's reputation in London. Pistrucci was introduced to
Lord and
Lady Spencer by Banks. Lady Spencer showed Pistrucci a model of
Saint George and the Dragon by
Nathaniel Marchant and commissioned him to reproduce it in the Greek style as part of her husband's regalia as a
Knight of the Garter. Pistrucci had already been thinking of such a work, and he produced the cameo. The model for the saint was an Italian waiter at Brunet's Hotel in
Leicester Square, where he had stayed after coming to London. Sir Joseph commissioned Pistrucci to craft a cameo of King
George III. As the King was ill with
porphyria, Pistrucci modelled the likeness from Marchant's three-shilling bank token, and cut it in red
jasper for a fee of 50
guineas. Banks showed the cameo to
William Wellesley-Pole, elder brother of
the Duke of Wellington and the
Master of the Mint, who was greatly impressed by the quality of what he saw. At this time, the
Royal Mint was preparing to issue new gold and silver coins as part of the
Great Recoinage of 1816, and in June of that year, Pole decided to hire Pistrucci to make models in stone for the new coinage that could be converted into steel
dies by the Mint's engravers. Pole had Pistrucci create three portraits of the King in different sizes. Only two were used, one for the
obverse of the half crown, and the other for the shilling and sixpence. Both were modified by
Thomas Wyon of the Mint, who engraved the designs in steel. What was dubbed the "bull head" of the King on the 1816 half crown was disliked by the public, and it was replaced by another in 1817. The criticism incensed Pistrucci, who blamed Wyon for bungling the design, and who set about learning to engrave in steel himself. After completing Lady Spencer's commission, by most accounts, Pistrucci suggested to Pole that an appropriate subject for the
sovereign, a new gold coin equal to
one pound that was to be struck, would be
Saint George. Until the early 20th century, gold coins were struck for circulation, rather than as bullion pieces.
Kevin Clancy, in his volume on the history of the sovereign coin, doubted whether the Spencer commission was truly the inspiration for the George and Dragon design which that coin has long featured, and that the idea might not even have come from Pistrucci. Clancy argued that such motifs were common at the time and that the story originated with Pistrucci, whom he deemed an unreliable witness on his own past. For a fee of 100 guineas (£105), Pistrucci created the sovereign's design, engraving it himself. He depicted the saint atop a fiery steed which is trampling the wounded dragon. George has a broken spear in his hand; part is in the dragon and another fragment lies on the ground. Pistrucci's original design, used for circulation in 1817–1819 and reprised by the Royal Mint in 2017, has the ribbon of the
Order of the Garter surrounding the George and dragon design, with its motto
HONI SOIT QUI MAL Y PENSE. The design, with Saint George bearing a sword rather than a spear, is ordinarily seen on the sovereign, and was also used for the
crown from 1818. Clancy noted of the design process for the crown, "what emerges is the presence of Pole at each turn. He bombarded the young artist with suggestions and instructions on how the design should be changed from the shape of the sword to the perceived ferocity of the dragon." Pistrucci had placed his full last name on both sides of the crown, for which he was criticised by the public, and some said the saint would surely fall off his horse with the next blow. After the death in 1817 of
Thomas Wyon Sr, the father of the man who had adapted Pistrucci's designs, Pole most probably offered Pistrucci the post of chief engraver at the Royal Mint, with a salary of £500 per annum. and a house within the grounds of the Mint. However, it soon appeared that a law passed under
William III barred foreigners from the post, and so Pole left it vacant, while granting Pistrucci the salary and emoluments of the office. Sir John Craig wrote in his history of the Royal Mint: "The arrangement was not put into writing, and misunderstanding was easy for a foreigner. Pole categorically denied any commitment beyond the grant for the time being of a salary for coinage designs as cheaper than payment of fees. The Italian persistently contended that he was seduced into Mint service by a promise of formal appointment to the chief engravership". According to H.W.A. Linecar in his book on British coin designs and designers, "the arrangement might have worked very well, even though it was against accepted procedure, had Pistrucci been other than he was." In 1819, Pistrucci was awarded the commission to design the
Waterloo Medal, a huge piece some in diameter that the government planned to award to the victorious generals and national leaders who had defeated Napoleon. Such a medal had been proposed by the Prince Regent (later
George IV) soon after the battle. Pistrucci's price was £2,400, and the down payment allowed him to bring his family from Italy. The medal was originally supposed to be a design by
John Flaxman, but Pistrucci refused to engrave the work of another artist, and Pole allowed him to design his own medal, a decision that antagonised London's art establishment against Pistrucci. A gigantic undertaking, the medal would take Pistrucci 30 years to complete. == Conflict at the Mint (1820–1836) ==