The South Sea Bubble or Appeal Against the House of Hanover, 1721.

Jacobite, James (III), Elder Pretender, The South Sea Bubble or Appeal Against the House of Hanover, 1721, silver medal by Ottone Hamerani, draped and armoured bust of James, right, VNICA SALVS, rev. Hanoverian horse trampling lion and unicorn, London in the distance, QVID GRAVIVS CAPTA, in exergue, MDCCXXI, 49mm (Eimer 493; MI ii 454/63; Woolf 40:1). Darkly toned, good extremely fine, rare in silver.

During the first quarter of the 18^th century the national debt had exceeded £9m and there was no obvious way of repaying it. Chancellor of the Exchequer Robert Harley, and banker John Blunt, successfully proposed a plan to parliament whereby the nation's creditors would be required to exchange their government bonds for shares in The South Sea Company. The company in turn would be given a monopoly on the potentially lucrative trade with South America, and shareholders would receive a dividend from its profits. As further security, the government would even subsidize the company, and therefore its shareholders, with an annual fee - still significantly better value for the nation than its existing debt repayments of course.

But greed and personal gain became part of the equation. Influential people were given share options and encouraged to promote the company, its interests being inextricable from their own. More public money was made available in the form of further debt. Private investment in the South Sea Company even led to wild speculation in a wave of other ill-conceived companies. The basic concept was a disaster. The country was at war with Spain so from the outset trading in South America was nearly impossible. The nation had been duped, and when the South Sea Company share price inevitably collapsed it was discovered that some 462 MPs, 122 members of the House of Lords, and a number of the Royal Family were involved for personal financial gain. Among them Richard Hampden MP, Treasurer to the Navy, had embezzled £26,000 of navy funds.

VNICA SALVS can be translated as "the only security" and the financial context would have been understood by the public at the time. In this medal the Jacobite claim is reiterated but it's also a medal about the immorality of the bubble, and the administration. The people flee a deserted capital while Britannia, dismayed, watches a Hanoverian horse trample the Lion and Unicorn.