George II 1746 Guinea intermediate bust AU58+ rare date

George II (1727-60), gold Guinea, 1746, intermediate laureate head left, V for U in King's name, legend ends low and final stop near bottom curl of hair, GEORGIVS .II. DEI.GRATIA, rev. second crowned quartered shield of arms, seven strings to Irish harp, date either side of crown, M.B.FE. ET. H. REX. F.D. B.ET. L. D. S. R. I. A. T ET. E. (Schneider 592; Farey 890 R; Bull EGC 608 R3; MCE 321; Traveller 2096 this coin; S.3678A). Pleasing red tone, extremely fine, slabbed and graded by NGC as AU58+ with special provenance label, very rare date.

NGC 2169834-021 - as of June 2025 this is the second finest graded example at NGC out of 12 pieces, and we note we previously sold the finest piece back in 2016 for £7,500. For comparison we note PCGS has graded one finer example.

The Latin legends translate to on obverse "George II by the Grace of God" continuing on the reverse in abbreviated Latin which if in shown in full reads "Magnae Britanniae Franciae et Hiberniae Rex Fidei Defensor Brun et Lunebergen-sis Dux, Sacri Romani Imperii Archi-Thesaurius et Elector" and translates 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."

We note the total output of gold for the calendar year of 1746 amounted to £474,492 which was shared amongst Five Guineas with LIMA mark as well as guineas and half-guineas with same provenance, and guineas and half-guineas with gold from other sources. The Lima treasure likely dominated this output rendering the more regular gold like this coin rarer.

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 The Traveller Collection.