Watch List notes:

Guinea 1685 Elephant and Castle S.3401 UNC retaining much original mint lustre and with a peripheral light tone. Very attractive and fully struck, vastly superior in grade and strike than the Jacob.Y.Terner example (Ex-Bridgewater House collection), which graded NGC MS63, described as 'mint fresh and beautiful', and realised $18,400 at Ira and Larry Goldbergs Auction in 2003 (Lot 20), similar in quality to the illustration on page 9 of the Bentley Collection catalogue detailing the history of the Gold Sovereign and it predecessors. A truly stunning example of this rare two-year type, and seldom offered in any grade, perhaps one of the finest examples extant. The elephant and castle was the emblem of the Royal African company, founded in 1660 as the Company of Royal Adventurers Trading in Africa. This organisation held a monopoly on trade along the West African coast. In 1667 the original company collapsed but later merged with the Gambian Merchants Company to become in 1672 the Royal African Company. Trading was chiefly in gold and silver, and sadly for several decades, human slaves


Estimate: 12750-15000 GBP