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Sale 46
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Lot 339
Great Britain. 5 Guineas, 1692. S-3422; Fr-299. William and Mary, 1689-1694. Type: 7 strings to harp, 11 pellets by lion. Conjoined heads of William and Mary right, William laureate. Reverse: Crowned, ornately garnished shield, with central small escutcheon, and shell "wings" at sides. QVARTO edge date. Exceptionally full, crisp strike. Marks on obverse generally light and evenly distributed; the reverse very clean. Lustrous, with pleasant red tone over reflective fields. NGC graded MS-62.
Mary Stuart was the daughter of James II and she married William III as part of Charles II's foreign policy. William and Mary reigned jointly from 1689 until her death from smallpox at the untimely age of 32 in 1694. The Five Guineas was the largest of their gold coins and featured the conjoined busts of the two monarchs, as this was the only time in British history that joint monarchs' portraits appeared on currency. All William and Mary coins are rare in high grade.
This splendid coin shows the two portraits side by side, each in intimate detail, each a portrayal of the monarchy as it could only have been "drawn" in the 1690s. Its artistic style is precisely of its time. The royal shield on the reverse side is equally impressive, a model of efficiency which includes essentially every regal symbol relating to this king and this queen. Unique to it is the deeply curved seashell ornament that appears on each side of the shield, so reminiscent of the "heavenly" door out of which Venus steps in the masterpiece of Botticelli, the Italian Renaissance painter. Whether this was in fact an influence on the engraver of this coin could make for a fine study. The coin itself does indeed stand for the flowering of a new monarchy in England, for the king was the former Prince William of Orange, a diminutive Dutchman who both "invaded" Britain and was welcomed by its Parliament, then searching for a replacement for King James II, who had "turned Catholic" while on the throne. The fear was that religious strife would be refired, something Parliament and the citizenry at large wished to avoid at all costs. William was a Protestant, and his tie to the British Royal Family was undeniable: he was the nephew of Charles II, and married the daughter of James, Duke of York, later James II. She was raised a Protestant and clung to that faith after her parents converted to Catholicism. Her marriage was actually proposed by King Charles II himself, a marriage of convenience when she was just 15. The couple came to the throne of England in what has been called the Bloodless Revolution, solving the religious problem for the land. They had an affectionate marriage but no children. Mary II, as she was properly known in life, died of smallpox in December 1694 at age 32. Her husband went on to rule as William III for another eight years but left no heir. Theirs was an age of elegance, when modern politics was born. This specimen, virtually as struck and a glorious emblem of its time, is especially fine in quality, with beautiful golden red toning.
Estimated Value $15,000 - 18,000.
Ex Cheshire Collection (5/30 - 6/1/05), lot 2227.
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