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Sovereign Rarities Ltd
Auction 4  21 Sep 2021
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Lot 243

Starting price: 4800 GBP
Price realized: 7500 GBP
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Anne (1702-14), silver Crown, 1703, VIGO. below first draped bust left, Latin legend and toothed border surrounding, ANNA. DEI. GRATIA., rev. Pre-Union crowned cruciform shields, seven strings to Irish harp, garter star at centre, date either side of top crown, Latin legend and toothed border surrounding, .MAG BR. FRA ET. HIB REG., edge inscribed in raised letters of upright orientation to obverse, .+ DECVS. ET. TVTAMEN. ANNO. REGNI. TERTIO, 29.98g (Bull 1340; ESC 99; S.3576). Sharply struck, pleasantly toned to a green-gold over surfaces of prooflike reflectivity, light hairlines in the field and minor highpoint friction, about extremely fine.

The Latin legends translate as on the obverse "Anne by the Grace of God," and abbreviated on the reverse as "Queen of Great Britain, France and Ireland." and additionally on the edge "An ornament and a safeguard, in the third year of the reign."

The most intrepid of stories lays behind the capture of the Vigo treasure as opposed to the other companies or privateers who had their mark placed upon the coins in other reigns. The Battle of Vigo Bay occurred on 23rd October 1702 and it was after the Battle that the treasure largely consisting of silver - with a tiny proportion of gold - was captured and transported back to Southampton on the south coast of England. From there the treasure was brought with great pomp and ceremony to London, overseen by the Mint Master himself, one Mr. Isaac Newton, to then be turned into coinage at the Royal Mint in the Tower of London.

(£6,000-£8,000)
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