Anne 1706 Guinea, Pre-Union with Scotland MS62, finest graded

Anne (1702-14),gold Guinea, 1706, Pre-Union type, first draped bust left, Latin legend and toothed border surrounding, ANNA. DEI. GRATIA.,rev.crowned emblematic Pre-Union cruciform shields, rose at centre, emblematic sceptres in angles, date either side of top crown, Latin legend and toothed border surrounding, .MAG BR.FRA ET.HIB REG. (Schneider -; Bull EGC 463 R5; Farey 490 VR; MCE 212; Traveller 2053 this coin; S.3562).Toned with some underlying brilliance, with light wear and surface marks, has been slabbed and graded by NGC as MS62 with special provenance label, extremely rare date.

NGC Certification 2169780-006. As of June 2025 this coin is the finest graded at NGC of this date of which a total of only four have been graded as it is such a rare date. Only two lower grade examples have been assessed at PCGS.

The Latin legends translate as "Anne, by the grace of God," on obverse and on the reverse as "Queen of Great Britain, France and Ireland."

We note that the Mint output of gold for the calendar year of 1706 amounted to only £23,897 which was divided amongst presumably Five Guinea and Guinea coins only.

Provenance Story:

This coin has a most intriguing provenance being hidden away in a European family collection since before World War II. The "Traveller" was a wealthy gentleman who having inherited a portion of a successful family company, made a fortune by promptly selling it and then travelled the world on what was in part an extended honeymoon for the decade between the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the outbreak of World War II. With the financial instability of the great depression and after dabbling at first with gold bullion, he decided to form an enormous collection of world gold coins from ancient to modern whilst travelling the world to see the relevant dealers in their geographical locations to find the most appropriate coins. The result was a collection of some 15,000 coins, 1,700 of which we are told are British, with all going into secure hiding as of 1940 when the nazi regime encroached on where our traveller was located. Sadly, the collector died of a stroke with the stress of the world situation at this time and the collection remained hidden away for decades, stored carefully in individual envelopes in cigar boxes within locked aluminium strongboxes, that were buried in the ground in a field at the collector's property. His wife carried the secret of the burial location for the decades following and reaching the end of her life some 50 years later divulged the secret to her only daughter, whereupon in the 1990s the family retrieved all the coins intact and secured them safely in a bank vault until it was time to sell by auction in 2025. Though we often hear of buried treasure or hoards of coins from antiquity in the ground, it is not often we hear of a sophisticated coin collection actually being buried for decades, an intriguing story to permanently associate with coins of the Traveller provenance which has been written about in newspapers and online worldwide. We are lucky enough to have secured a small number of rare British coins from this esteemed collection.

Provenance:

Ex A. H. Baldwin, purchased 26^th October 1937.

Ex The Traveller Collection.