Lot 117
Great Britain. Guinea, 1664. Charles II, 2nd Laureate Bust. Elephant hallmark below bust. S-3341; Fr-288; KM-423.2, cited by Spink as extremely rare, and one of the few coins in that reference listed but unpriced. In fact, when this piece was purchased at auction in 1992, no reference we could locate had ever listed a value, in any condition. This is a famed specimen, too: ex Bridgewater House sale, lot 143. Despite some faint tin impurities in the flan (typical of this era), this coin is as struck with gorgeous eye-appeal and a remarkably bold strike for its time. Evidently it was made for some special purpose, and subsequently saved with great care. It glows with a luster found on very few other gold coins of the 1660s. It is one of the rarest and most important coins in the Terner Collection, a centerpiece of such stature that even a VF piece, could one be found, would fetch five figures. Its stature derives from this: the Guinea denomination was named for the original source of British gold ore in the mid-17th century, from the country in Africa then called Guinea; and this particular coin, as the first gold piece of this size to bear the distinctive Elephant hallmark, is thus the prototype for all guineas to come. Doubtless the finest known. A coin of such importance that its equivalent, in U.S. gold coins, would have to be the 1822 half eagle or the 1849 prototype double eagle. Most simply put, it is "the rarest of the rare" among historical English gold coins. PCGS graded MS-64.
Estimated Value $35,000 - 45,000.
|
| |
| Realized $48,300 |
