LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 May/June Long Beach CA Sig World Coin #440  / 

51038

Great Britain: William & Mary 5 Guineas 1692, S-

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:6,250.00 USD Estimated At:25,000.00 - 30,000.00 USD
Great Britain: William & Mary 5 Guineas 1692, S-
<B>William & Mary 5 Guineas 1692,</B></I> S-3422, MS63 NGC, edge not visible, a glittering coin with minor disturbance in the luster but a balanced look, with sharp portraits. Small metal flaw above the "T" of ET HIB in the reverse legend. Very few of these are ever seen with such relatively mark-free surfaces as bless this beautiful specimen; rare in this grade. The historical iconography of these jugate-bust issues is interesting. Mary Stuart was of the royal line (one of her father's eight children) and came to the throne by default, following the religious and political disturbance caused by James II's conversion to Catholicism. James was exiled to France (a Catholic country) following the infamous Bloodless Revolution, wherein Parliament found itself faced with difficult decisions once the detested Papist had been removed from his throne. Of course the king at this point, some two decades after the Restoration, had little real political power left to him. That had evaporated with the execution of Charles I in 1649, when parliamentary "democracy" commenced in England. But the old religious enmities lingered. James had declared himself Protestant when he took the throne but vacillated and finally converted, angering the Anglicans, who summoned his daughter, a Protestant who had been married to "the Little Dutchman," William of Orange, by her father, Charles II. Thus came to the throne two rulers. Mary Stuart was more royal than William, yet she is in his shadow on this portrait piece, and remained so until her early death in 1694. The Dutchman became King William III and ruled, without much public affection, until his own infamous fall from his horse in 1702, which broke his neck. Numismatically, this reign witnessed the founding of paper money in the nation, with the Bank of England. Tons of worn and clipped old silver and gold coins were also called into temporary mints throughout the land, in what has been labeled the Great Recoinage of 1696-97. Thus disappeared countless hammered coins, gold and silver, remade into glamorous issues such as this massive gold piece. The money shone anew, the old century was about to die away, and a new era of not such bloody warring but more treacherous political plundering was about to commence. The giant "fivers" (as may be seen in our photos of this coin) featured a unique symbol, a seashell, at each side of the large, crowned shield on their reverse side. Renaissance in influence, it somehow seemed to signify the passing of the old religion--an ornateness replacing the tips of the once ubiquitous cross, which had adorned the reverse of English coinage for centuries. More than a hint at the elegance which typified the Court of St James during this era, it suggests a passage of the old ways and the coming of a new age.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Coins & Currency (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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