George II 1751 Guinea old bust MS62, by far the finest graded Very Rare

George II (1727-60), gold Guinea, 1751, older laureate head left, legend and toothed border surrounding, GEORGIUS. II. DEI. GRATIA., rev. crowned quartered shield of arms, date either side of crown, abbreviated Latin legend, M.B.F.ET.H. REX. F.D.B.ET.L.D.S.R.I.A.T.ET.E. (Schneider -; Farey 940 R; MCE 326; Bull EGC 614 R2; Traveller 2098 this coin; S.3680). Toned with a little underlying brilliance in the legends, some surface marks, has been slabbed and graded by NGC as MS62 with special provenance label, rare date.

NGC Certification 2169831-039 - we note as of June 2025 that this coin is by far the finest graded at NGC of the nine pieces assessed with the next coin down being an AU50 which emphasises the rarity of this date in a high grade of preservation. For comparison PCGS have only graded one example as a VF30.

The abbreviated Latin legends translate as on the obverse "George by the Grace of God", and on the reverse as "King of Great Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith Duke of Brunswick and Luneberg, High Treasurer and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire."

The calendar year output of gold was £450,663 for 1751 which was divided between 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 & Son Ltd, purchased 26^th October 1937.

Ex The Traveller Collection.