Charles II 1678 Two-Guineas 8 over 7, rare overdate NGC MS62

Charles II (1660-85),gold Two Guineas, 1678, with 8 struck over 7, second laureate head right, Latin legend and toothed border surrounding, CAROLVS. II. DEI. GRATIA,rev.crowned cruciform shields, sceptres in angles, four interlinked Cs at centre, date either side of top crown, Latin legend and toothed border surrounding, .MAG. BR. FRA. ET. HIB REX. (Schneider 433; Bull EGC 216 R2; MCE 40; Traveller 2011 this coin; S.3335).Toned with a light red hue and underlying brilliance, a couple of light flecks and some hairline marks, has been slabbed and graded by NGC as MS62 with special provenance label, rare date.

NGC Certification 2169797-001.

The Latin legends translate as on the obverse "Charles the second by the Grace of God," and abbreviated on the reverse as "King of Great Britain, France and Ireland."

The total gold output for the calendar year 1678 amounted to £136,856 worth of Five Guineas, Two Guineas, Guineas and Half-Guineas.

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.