Important British and World Coins

James VIII (d. 1766), Pattern Guinea, 1716, by M. Young from dies by N. Roettier, in silver, laureate youthful bust left, reads iacobus tertius, rev. cruciform shields, sceptres in angles, edge plain, 8.43g/6h (Woolf 16:1; B 3, fig. 1096; S 5728). Usual rust marks on obverse, otherwise extremely fine and practically as struck, attractively toned, extremely rare (£900-1,200)

Provenance:
Bt Spink.

The obverse die is considered to have been intended for a medal to mark James’s de jure succession in 1701 at the age of thirteen. In the absence of an appropriate reverse die, it was paired with an unfinished reverse die for the pattern guinea, there being no thistle in the centre (cf. Woolf 33:2). Burns, quoting R.A. Hoblyn, states that only 20 specimens of this type were struck in silver