Guinea of George III

This coin was unearthed last weekend by a detecting colleague of Stephen Palmer. The colleague wanted a valuation on his find so Stephen sent me the images.

The coin is a guinea of George III. It is dated 1786 on the reverse and has the fourth head of the king on the obverse.

One of the most common silver coins of George III is the 1787 shilling. All numismatists who are interested in coins of the 18th century will have at least one example. They are common because most never entered circulation. Instead, they were hoarded by banks, businesses and individuals. Today they are rare as detecting finds and in my close to 30 years of experience with detecting finds I’ve seen very few shilling dated 1787 but dozens of George III guineas. It might seem strange but it is far easier to find a gold guinea than it is to unearth a very common shilling of George III.

Valuation

The obverse of the guinea pictured here would grade good VF; the reverse isn’t quite as good but still has eye appeal. Sadly, there is a significant minus point: there is damage to the edge by GRA of GRATIA. It looks as if it has had quite a knock and this would certainly have an impact on its value. As it stands, my price range would be £450 to £500.

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