George I Gold Five Guineas (1716–1726)

Historical Context

Following the death of Queen Anne on 1 August 1714, the British crown devolved under the provisions of the Act of Settlement 1701 onto Georg Ludwig, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Prince-Elector of the Holy Roman Empire, who ascended the throne as George I. This succession inaugurated the personal union between the Kingdom of Great Britain and the Electorate of Hanover, requiring an immediate reconfiguration of visual heraldry and state titulature across the coinages produced by the Royal Mint at the Tower of London.

Since the Restoration of 1660, English milled gold denominations had traditionally displayed four cruciform shields representing the crowns of England, Scotland, France, and Ireland. Following the Act of Union 1707 under Queen Anne, England and Scotland were impaled together across two opposing shields. With the accession of the House of Hanover, the heraldry was reorganized: the impaled arms of England and Scotland were brought together onto a single shield at 12 o'clock, France remained at 3 o'clock, and Ireland at 6 o'clock. This alteration released the shield at 9 o'clock for the ancestral armorial bearings of Hanover (Brunswick, Lüneburg, and Westphalia), surmounted by the inescutcheon of the Arch-Treasurer of the Holy Roman Empire.

In currency administration, the five-guinea denomination was the largest milled gold denomination struck for commercial exchange. When the first issue bearing the date 1716 was released, the guinea was rated at 21s. 6d., rather than the later 21-shilling rate, giving five guineas a value of 107s. 6d. On 21 September 1717, Master of the Mint Sir Isaac Newton submitted a formal report to the Treasury demonstrating that the domestic overvaluation of gold relative to continental silver parities had encouraged the export and melting of British silver coin. Consequently, the Crown issued the Royal Proclamation of 22 December 1717, which lowered and fixed the legal tender rating of the guinea to twenty-one shillings, establishing five guineas permanently at 105 shillings (£5 5s).

Obverse: Iconographic Composition

The obverse composition features a right-facing laureate portrait of King George I. The hair is rendered in long, flowing baroque locks that curl behind the truncation of the neck and tumble past the rear of the laurel wreath. The laurel wreath encircles the head and is fastened at the nape with a ribbon featuring a double loop and two floating ribbon ends.

The truncation of the neck is executed with a plain, unembellished profile, omitting any engraver initials, mintmarks, or subsidiary punch symbols. The entire perimeter is enclosed by a struck border of uniform, inward-pointing toothed denticles.

In museum comparison material, specimen 1969.206.b in the Cleveland Museum of Art (originally from the Norweb Collection) provides a verified physical standard for the inaugural 1716 type, measuring 3.7 cm in diameter and weighing 41.791 g.

Obverse: Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The obverse legend is rendered in the Latin alphabet using classical Roman serif capitals, reading:

GEORGIVS · D · G · M · BR · FR · ET · HIB · REX · F · D ·

This formula represents an abbreviated rendering of the Latin royal style: Georgius Dei Gratia Magnae Britanniae Franciae et Hiberniae Rex, Fidei Defensor, which translates into English as: "George, by the Grace of God, King of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith."

The text is arranged clockwise along the perimeter of the field, commencing at the lower neck truncation and terminating beneath the king's breast. Words and abbreviations are separated by small pellet stops.

A significant epigraphic development on this coinage was the formal introduction of the abbreviation F · D · (Fidei Defensor). While the title had originally been conferred on King Henry VIII by Pope Leo X in 1521, it had appeared only rarely on earlier regular English coinages; under George I, beginning with his initial issues in 1714 and 1715, it became a standard component of the regular British royal coin legend.

Reverse: Iconographic Composition

The reverse features a cruciform arrangement of four crowned territorial shields radiating from a central medallion, arranged as follows:

• Upper Shield (12 o'clock): The impaled arms of England and Scotland (dexter: the three lions passant guardant of England; sinister: the lion rampant within a double tressure flory-counterflory of Scotland).
• Right Shield (3 o'clock): The arms of France (three fleurs-de-lis arranged two over one), asserting the traditional British claim to the French throne.
• Lower Shield (6 o'clock): The arms of Ireland (an Irish harp).
• Left Shield (9 o'clock): The composite heraldic arms of the Electorate of Hanover (tierced in pairle reversed), depicting the two lions passant guardant of Brunswick, the lion rampant within a field of hearts for Lüneburg, and the galloping horse of Westphalia (Sachsenross), charged at the centre with an inescutcheon bearing Charlemagne's Imperial Crown, the badge of the Arch-Treasurer of the Holy Roman Empire.

At the center of the cross sits the radiant Star of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, containing the central Cross of St. George. Extending into the saltire angles between the four shields are four sceptres terminating in national and regal finials: a fleur-de-lis in the upper-right angle, an Irish harp in the lower-right angle, a Scottish thistle in the lower-left angle, and an orb finial with cross pattée in the upper-left angle.

The calendar date is divided across the top crown flanking the combined English and Scottish arms: the century 17 appears to the left and the final digits (16, 17, 20, or 26) to the right. The design is framed by an outer ring of toothed denticles.

Reverse: Epigraphy and Inscriptions

The reverse legend is executed in classical Roman serif capitals, reading:

· BRVN · ET · L · DVX · S · R · I · A · TH · ET · EL ·

This inscription abbreviates the Latin electoral titles: Brunsvicensis et Luneburgensis Dux, Sacri Romani Imperii Archi-Thesaurarius et Elector. In English, the titles translate as: "Duke of Brunswick and Lüneburg, Arch-Treasurer and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire."

The text is positioned circumscriptionally along the outer border, broken into four distinct segments by the royal crowns that surmount the shields. Pellet stops punctuate each element of the legend. This design architecture separated the sovereign British titles on the obverse from the monarch's continental and imperial dignities on the reverse, establishing a precedent maintained on British gold throughout the reigns of the first three Hanoverian kings.

Typology and Documented Variants

The George I five-guinea series was struck in four distinct calendar years, each characterized by specific edge regnal date inscriptions applied on the Castaing machine prior to die striking:

• 1716 (Regnal Year 2): Struck with the obverse laureate bust right and crowned cruciform shields on the reverse with date 17–16. The edge is lettered in raised relief: DECVS ET TVTAMEN · ANNO REGNI SECVNDO. Documented in standard references as Spink SCBC 3626, Spink MCE 238, and Bull EGC 1, no. 495.
• 1717 (Regnal Year 3): Features the calendar date 17–17 with the edge inscription reading DECVS ET TVTAMEN · ANNO REGNI TERTIO. A documented variety occurs with an inverted letter D in DECVS, appearing as OECVS. Documented as Spink SCBC 3626, Spink MCE 239, and Bull EGC 1, no. 496.
• 1720 (Regnal Year 6): Bears the date 17–20 and the edge legend DECVS ET TVTAMEN · ANNO REGNI SEXTO. A notable variety exhibits an overdate where the numeral 20 was cut over 16 in the die (1720/16), verified in major auction appearances. The 1720 issue is the rarest calendar year in the five-guinea series for George I. Documented as Spink SCBC 3626, Spink MCE 240, and Bull EGC 1, no. 497.
• 1726 (Regnal Year 13): The final emission of the denomination for the reign, bearing date 17–26 and edge legend DECVS ET TVTAMEN · ANNO REGNI DECIMO TERTIO. Specimens regularly present inverted letters N in ANNO. Documented as Spink SCBC 3626, Spink MCE 241, and Bull EGC 1, no. 498.

The gallery is the identified museum coin CMA 1969.206. Its supplied face photographs do not independently confirm any edge variant, inverted letter, die axis or overdate. Its 1716 date is distinct from the wider series range.

Scholarly Debates and Attribution Limitations

Several points of numismatic clarification and technical limitation surround the George I five-guinea series:

1. Denominational Valuation: Numismatic literature and commercial sale catalogues frequently refer to the 1716 five-guinea issue retrospectively as a "105-shilling" or "five-pound five-shilling" piece. At the time of its striking in 1716, the applicable rating was 21s. 6d. per guinea, yielding 107s. 6d. for five guineas. The denomination only became statutory legal tender for 105 shillings following the Royal Proclamation of 22 December 1717 prompted by Sir Isaac Newton's Mint report.
2. Die Engraver Attributions: While Chief Engraver John Croker (Johann Crocker) directed die production at the Tower Mint alongside Assistant Engraver Johann Rudolph Ocks the Elder during 1716, surviving Royal Mint indentures and warrants do not explicitly document which engraver cut the portrait punches or matrices for specific denominations. Attributing the five-guinea dies exclusively to Croker remains a traditional numismatic attribution rather than an archivally documented certainty.
3. Specimen Rim Inspection: In digitised museum holdings and auction photographs, planar obverse and reverse views do not disclose the cylindrical rim surface. Technical features such as edge letter spacing, pellet forms, inverted letters, and the rotational orientation of the edge legend relative to the obverse axis require direct physical examination or dedicated edge photography to confirm.

References

1. Five Guineas: Shields and Star of the Order of the Garter (reverse), 1716 (Accession 1969.206.b). Curatorial entry and physical metrology (Diameter: 3.7 cm, Weight: 41.791 g)
2. Catalogue of the Valuable Collection of Coins and Medals, the Property of the Late John G. Murdoch, Esq.: Third Portion. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, 15–19 March 1904, p. 11, lots 1–4
3. Numismatica Genevensis SA, Auction 21, Lot 2046 (George I Five Guineas 1720/16). Lot description, 10 December 2024
4. Numismatica Ars Classica, Auction 155, Lot 2068 (George I Five Guineas 1720/16). Lot description, 20 May 2025
5. The Gold Coins of England, Arranged and Described. Kenyon (1884), p. 177
6. English Gold Coinage: Volume 1 (1649–1816). Maurice Bull (London: Spink, 2020), pp. 384–385, nos. 495–498
7. Sylloge of Coins of the British Isles 57: The Herbert Schneider Collection, Part II: English Gold Coins 1603 to 20th Century. Peter Woodhead (London: Spink, 2002)
8. The Mint: A History of the London Mint from A.D. 287 to 1948. Sir John Craig (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953), pp. 208–220
9. The Milled Coinage of England, 1662-1946. Spink & Son (1950); bibliographic catalogue reference, nos. 238-241
10. Coins of England & The United Kingdom: Pre-Decimal Issues. Spink & Son Ltd., 60th ed. (London: Spink, 2025), no. 3626