Lot 344
Great Britain. Two Guineas, 1694/3. S-3424. Fr-301; KM-482.1. William & Mary, 1689-1694. Conjoined busts right. Reverse: Crowned and garnished arms, Lion of Nassau at center. The overdate is clear as can be. The strike is excellent in all respects, including deeply impressed rims. Fields are somewhat prooflike against the mostly frosted portraits on the obverse, with a delightful "hard" brilliance to the reverse. An ancient, very faint scratch runs down William's neck, but overall the coin is extraordinarily clean for its age. The cataloguers have seen specimens over the years which are close to this in quality, but not quite so beautiful and lustrous as this gorgeous rarity. A remarkable example! NGC graded MS-64.
These joint monarchs issued relatively few gold coins in all, but their "double guinea" series was particularly brief. The 1691 is never seen, and 1693 shares its date with this overdate, indicating itself how little (and briefly) the dies were used. For this issue, the date was simply re-engraved on the obverse die to make the next year's coins. Even here, with this very limited issue, an early state die-crack is already visible on the reverse side which bears the overdate.
Estimated Value $13,000 - 15,000.
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| Realized $27,600 |
