William and Mary Gold Five Guineas (1691–1694)

Historical Context

Following the Glorious Revolution of 1688 and the flight of James II, the Convention Parliament instituted an unprecedented constitutional settlement by declaring Mary II and her Dutch husband, William III of Orange-Nassau, joint sovereigns of England and Ireland in February 1689. The Scottish Convention offered them the Scottish crown in April, under a separate constitutional settlement. Although Mary possessed direct hereditary legitimacy as James II's elder daughter, William refused a subordinate position as prince consort, insisting upon reigning as a sovereign co-ruler vested with primary executive administration. This co-regency was given immediate visual and legal expression across the coinage of the realm, which coupled their profiles and proclaimed their authority jointly in Latin legends.

The five-guinea piece constituted the premier gold denomination of the realm, produced under the statutory standard framed by Charles II's Mint indenture of 1670. The indenture defined Crown gold at 22 carats (0.9167 fine) and prescribed that 44.5 guineas be coined from one pound troy of gold, yielding a theoretical weight of 647.19 grains (41.937 grams) for the five-guinea denomination. While legally valued at five pounds, the guinea denominations functioned as floating trade coins against England's heavily degraded, clipped hammered silver currency. Its exchange value fluctuated against silver, especially during the severe silver-currency crisis approaching the Great Recoinage of 1696. A single fixed market rate should not be assigned to every year of the joint reign.

From 1691 to 1694, the Tower Mint struck five-guinea pieces in two parallel forms: unmarked plain issues and pieces displaying an elephant and castle badge beneath the conjoined royal portraits. The badge designated bullion supplied by the Royal African Company, which had received a royal charter in 1672 conferring a monopoly over English trade along the West African coast. The company's shipments of gold to the Mint were directly tied to the triangular transatlantic slave trade, wherein manufactured exports were bartered for captive Africans transported across the Middle Passage. The badge served as an official corporate hallmark and public advertisement of the company's privileged supply to the Crown rather than a simple geographic designation of the metal's origin.

Obverse Iconographic Composition

The obverse design presents jugate, right-facing busts of William III and Mary II. William is rendered in the foreground in heroic Roman convention, wearing a classical laurel wreath tied behind his neck with ribands, his long Baroque curls cascading downward over his bare shoulder. Mary is positioned in the secondary plane directly behind her husband, shown in classical drapery with her hair elegantly swept back in coiffed curls. The truncations of both figures terminate in heavy classical drapery folds that sweep across the lower field.

On issues struck from Royal African Company bullion, a compact emblem consisting of a profile elephant facing left and bearing a multi-turreted castle upon its back is placed directly below the truncation of William's bust. The entire composition is encircled by an outer border of fine, uniformly spaced triangular denticles set within a raised rim.

Obverse Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The obverse legend is rendered in crisp Latin serif capitals and reads clockwise along the peripheral margin:

• Inscription: GVLIELMVS · ET · MARIA · DEI · GRATIA ·
• Transliteration: Gulielmus et Maria Dei Gratia
• Translation: "William and Mary, by the Grace of God"

The inscription begins at the lower left edge, progresses over the heads of the sovereigns, and terminates at the lower right, broken only by the lower drape of the monarchs' busts. Words are punctuated by raised central pellet stops. The epigraphic style reflects the fine lettering punches employed at the Tower Mint during the period, consistently executed without ligature or contraction in the core royal names.

Reverse Iconographic Composition

The reverse is dominated by a substantial, garnished square-topped armorial cartouche surmounted by an arched imperial crown. The date is divided across the apex of the field, with the century digits flanking the crown on the left and the specific year digits on the right. The cartouche is enriched with Baroque architectural volutes and stylized scallop shells flanking the lateral borders, framed by a peripheral rim of triangular denticles.

The shield displays the heraldic quarterly arms of the British realms as established following the 1689 accession:

• First and Fourth Quarters: Quarterly, France (three fleurs-de-lis) and England (three lions passant guardant).
• Second Quarter: Scotland (the lion rampant within a double tressure flory-counterflory).
• Third Quarter: Ireland (the Irish harp).
• Inescutcheon of Pretence: Superimposed upon the central intersection of the quarters is the personal dynastic escutcheon of William of Orange-Nassau, displaying a lion rampant within a field semé of billets (azure, billetty, a lion rampant or).

Minor reverse die varieties exhibit variations in the internal rendering of the harp, most notably the number of harp strings (typically seven or eight), as well as variations in the punch size of the Nassau lion.

Reverse Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The reverse legend completes the royal titulature in Latin serif capitals, commencing at the upper right and encircling the armorial cartouche:

• Inscription: · MAG · BR · FR · ET · HIB · REX · ET · REGINA · [Date] ·
• Transliteration: Magnae Britanniae, Franciae et Hiberniae Rex et Regina [Date]
• Translation: "King and Queen of Great Britain, France, and Ireland [Date]"

The divided date is integrated into the legend layout at the 12 o'clock position flanking the imperial crown (for example, split as 16 and 91). Words and abbreviations are demarcated by raised pellet stops. The legend explicitly asserts co-monarchical sovereignty through the paired terms REX ET REGINA, while continuing the English monarchy's traditional territorial claim to France.

Typology and Documented Variants

Prior to coining in the screw press, planchets were edged in raised relief using the parallel-die edging machine developed by Jean Castaing. The edge carries a protective Latin motto and regnal year formula:

• Edge Inscription: + DECVS · ET · TVTAMEN · ANNO · REGNI · [Regnal Year] · +
• Translation: "An ornament and a safeguard, in the [ordinal] regnal year"

The motto, adapted from Virgil's Aeneid and proposed to the Royal Mint by John Evelyn under Charles II, proclaimed the edge inscription both as decorative adornment and as mechanical defense against clipping and filing.

The series comprises eight distinct major catalogued varieties spanning four calendar years:

• 1691 Plain: Conjoined busts right, plain below. Edge reads ANNO REGNI TERTIO. Catalogued as Spink SCBC 3422, Spink MCE 136, and Maurice Bull EGC 344.
• 1691 Elephant and Castle: Conjoined busts right, RAC badge below. Edge reads ANNO REGNI TERTIO. Catalogued as Spink SCBC 3423, MCE 137, and EGC 345. An institutional comparison specimen in the Cleveland Museum of Art (accession 1969.201, Norweb Collection) records a weight of 41.802 grams and a diameter of 36.0 millimeters.
• 1692 Plain: Conjoined busts right, plain below. Edge reads ANNO REGNI QVARTO. Catalogued as Spink SCBC 3422, MCE 138, and EGC 347.
• 1692 Elephant and Castle: Conjoined busts right, RAC badge below. Edge reads ANNO REGNI QVARTO. Catalogued as Spink SCBC 3423, MCE 139, and EGC 346.
• 1693 Plain: Conjoined busts right, plain below. Edge reads ANNO REGNI QVINTO. Minor die varieties display seven or eight harp strings and small or large Nassau lion puncheons. Catalogued as Spink SCBC 3422, MCE 140, and EGC 348–350.
• 1693 Elephant and Castle: Conjoined busts right, RAC badge below. Edge reads ANNO REGNI QVINTO. Catalogued as Spink SCBC 3423, MCE 141, and EGC 351.
• 1694 Plain: Conjoined busts right, plain below. Edge reads ANNO REGNI SEXTO. Representing the final and rarest plain date of the joint reign. Catalogued as Spink SCBC 3422, MCE 142, and EGC 354.
• 1694 Elephant and Castle: Conjoined busts right, RAC badge below. Edge reads ANNO REGNI SEXTO. Catalogued as Spink SCBC 3423, MCE 143, and EGC 352–353.

The supplied gallery shows the obverse and reverse of CMA 1969.201, not its edge. The standard edge formula and TERTIO catalogue variety are series comparisons, not an independent reading from an edge photograph.

Scholarly Debates and Attribution Limitations

Scholarly discussions surrounding the William and Mary five-guinea series focus on institutional engraver dynamics, the socioeconomic meaning of corporate hallmarks, and strict boundaries in die attribution:

• Tower Mint Engraving Responsibilities: Following the death of Chief Engraver George Bowers in March 1690, the engraver's patent was awarded to Henry Harris. However, archival evidence demonstrates that Harris lacked the requisite technical skill to sink coinage dies. The Mint consequently contracted the veteran Flemish die-sinkers James and Norbert Roettier to model and cut royal portrait puncheons and dies throughout the joint reign. This occurred despite persistent political and religious distrust directed at the Roettier family due to their Jacobite sympathies, highlighting the Mint's dependence on their master craftsmanship.
• Corporate Hallmark versus Geographical Origin: Early numismatic literature frequently interpreted the elephant and castle mark as an informal geographical indicator denoting bullion imported from the Guinea coast. Modern economic and historical scholarship stresses that the mark represented the chartered monopoly of the Royal African Company. Because the company's capital and bullion were systematically acquired through the commercial trafficking of captive Africans across the Middle Passage, the insignia is understood by contemporary historians as an institutional hallmark of the transatlantic slave trade.
• Attribution Limitations on Uninspected Specimens: Detailed die-state classifications—such as repunched letters, specific harp-string counts, Nassau lion puncheon sizing, and localized planchet flaws—require direct optical comparison against physical coins or high-resolution imagery. Data drawn from specific museum specimens, such as the Cleveland Museum of Art coin, serve exclusively as comparative references and cannot be assigned to uninspected collection specimens.

References

1. Cleveland Museum of Art Object Record 1969.201.b (Reverse). Accession record 1969.201.b: weight 41.802 g, diameter 3.6 cm, gift of Mrs. Emery May Holden Norweb (1969)
2. Cleveland Museum of Art Object Record 1969.201.a (Obverse). Accession record 1969.201.a: obverse portrait and legend transcription GVLIELMVS . ET . MARIA . DEI . GRATIA.
3. Numista Specimen and Metrology Index: Five Guineas (William and Mary). Catalogue entry pieces43457: statutory ratio 44.5 guineas/troy lb (647.2 grains / 41.94 g), fineness 0.9167, KM 479.1 / KM 479.2
4. Sovereign Rarities Reference Catalogue (1691 Elephant & Castle). Item 1884488: Bull EGC 345, MCE 137, SCBC 3423; Roettier die preparation; edge TERTIO
5. Sovereign Rarities Reference Catalogue (1692 Plain Five Guineas). Item 1739528: MCE 138, Bull EGC 347, SCBC 3422; edge QVARTO
6. Coins of England and the United Kingdom: William and Mary five guineas. Standard catalogue bibliography, SCBC 3423; replaces unavailable auction mirror
7. Morton & Eden Auction 103, Lot 498 (1693 Elephant & Castle). Auction 103, Lot 498: MCE 141, SCBC 3423, Bull EGC 351; edge QVINTO
8. Noonans Mayfair Auction 179, Lot 129 (1694 Elephant & Castle). Auction 179, Lot 129: MCE 143, SCBC 3423, Bull EGC 352; edge SEXTO
9. English Gold Coinage, Vol. I: 1649 to 1816. Maurice Bull (2020), entries EGC 344–354 (further reading cross-verified via auction concordances)
10. A New History of the Royal Mint. Christopher E. Challis (ed., 1992), pp. 336, 382–386 (further reading on 1670 indenture and Harris/Roettier administration)
11. Freedom's Debt: The Royal African Company and the Politics of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1672–1752. William A. Pettigrew (2013), pp. 11–24 (further reading on RAC monopoly and African bullion supply)