William & Mary Five Guineas 1692 Elephant and Castle

William and Mary (1688-94), gold Five Guineas, 1692, elephant and castle below, conjoined busts right, legend surrounding, GVLIELMVS. ET. MARIA. DEI. GRATIA, toothed border around rim both sides, rev. crowned quartered shield of arms with scalloped frame, Lion of Nassau as an escutcheon at centre, date either side of crown, MAG. BR. FR. ET. HIB . REX. ET. REGINA., edge inscribed in raised letters, inverted orientation to obverse, +DECVS. ET. TVTAMEN. ANNO. REGNI. QVARTO., weight 41.72g (Schneider -; Bull EGC 347; GH 51; MCE 139; King 126; S.3423). Lightly toned though once cleaned, lots of little flecks and surface nicks both sides, some areas of finer light scratching nearer rim and with weak edge lettering on parts of inscription, otherwise almost very fine.

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."

The elephant and castle provenance mark represents the "Royal African Company of England" as it had been so reconstructed by the Duke of York from 1672. The "R.A.C." found success trading with Africa and the New World through the 1670s and 1680s, from 1692 onwards things became more distorted, the Nine Years War with France did not help, as well as competition from other traders over the African monopoly, the company seemed to hold along with the East India Company for the Far East. In 1697 a modus vivendi was reached allowing others to trade in Africa, under the proviso they paid a 10% tariff to the R.A.C.

The total output of gold from the Mint in 1692 totalled £114,499 of which only a smaller proportion would have been elephant and castle marked coinage.

A principal metals analysis breakdown has been determined for this coin at a surface depth of up to 10 microns using a Niton DXL machine and shows this coin at its testing level to be approximately:

91.0% gold

8.0% silver

0.7% copper

0.3% lead