LOT Heritage Rare Coin Galleries  /  2007 Jan New York World Coin Auction #425  / 

51661

George I Shilling, 1723 SSC. S-3647. First laureate and

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:150.00 USD Estimated At:600.00 - 800.00 USD
George I Shilling, 1723 SSC. S-3647. First laureate and
<B>George I Shilling, 1723 SSC.</B></I> S-3647. First laureate and draped bust. MS63 PCGS Eliasberg. Sharply struck, the normal piece but in abnormally fine condition. In fact, the PCGS grade seems conservative to this cataloguer. Very handsome medium gray toning with silvery flashes showing. Approximately 1,000 of these were discovered in a London safe (where they had remained as "change" since issue) in 1830, accounting for almost all the known finer pieces of this style. That group is well distributed, and today they are very scarce. The hallmark that they all bear, the famed "SSC" letters in the reverse field, of course relates to the silver seized by the government from the ill-fortuned South Seas Company, of London, a speculative stock-issuing firm which had persuaded the members of Parliament to involve the government in its finances. Supposedly the Company had many business ventures going in the far-off South Seas, but these were in reality all imaginary! The public was persuaded by the myth and many people invested in the Company's stock shares. First Lord of the Treasury Sir Robert Walpole (England's first-ever Prime Minister) had opposed the government's involvement but had been over-ruled. When the Company fell apart, in the modern world's first financial "bubble," Walpole grabbed what he could of the Company's meager assets, a small pile of silver, from which the royal Mint coined these mementoes. A fascinating story which many suspect is today being repeated on Wall Street in myriad ways.<BR><I>From the Louis E. Eliasberg, Sr. Collection</B></I><BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Coin/Currency (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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