William and Mary 1692 Guinea AU58, very rare date, finest graded

William and Mary (1688-94),gold Guinea, 1692, conjoined busts right, legend surrounding, GVLIELMVS. ET. MARIA. DEI. GRATIA, toothed border around rim both sides,revcrowned quartered shield of arms, Lion of Nassau as an escutcheon at centre, date either side of crown, .MAG. BR. FR. ET. HIB. REX. ET. REGINA. (Schneider -; Farey 340 VR; Bull EGC 372 R; MCE 154; Traveller 2034 this coin; S.3426).Toned with underlying brilliance, some nicks and flecks with surface marks, has been slabbed and graded by NGC as AU58 with special provenance label, very rare date.

NGC Certification 2169797-004 - as of June 2025 this coin is the finest graded example at NGC of only four pieces. This is such a rare date that PCGS have not yet graded any.

The Latin legends translate to on obverse "William and Mary by the Grace of God" continuing on the reverse as "King and Queen of Great Britain, France and Ireland."

We note the total output of gold from the Mint for the calendar year of 1692 totalled £114,499.

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.

We note the Traveller obtained this coin from another large collection that of Thomas Bryan Clarke-Thornhill (1857-1934) who owned over 10,000 coins of the World in varying metals and worked in the diplomatic service but lived on independent wealth in London joining the British Numismatic Society in 1912. When he died the British Museum was given first choice from the collection for potential upgrades and filling of any gaps in the national collection and they selected over 6,000 pieces with the rest being sold. The auction of 1937 contained 936 lots of British and foreign coins and is always a good mark of quality.

Provenance:

Ex T. Bryan Clarke-Thornhill, first portion, Glendining, 24^th May 1937, lot 236, sold for £5

Ex The Traveller Collection.