$32,670.00 USD
GEORGIVS · Crowned 4-fold arms. KM 604. Proof; S 3728; W&R 95).
A very rare and superbly original example of this Fourth Guinea issue. Deeply mirrored original surfaces with frosty cameo contrast on both obverse and reverse. These pieces are getting more and more difficult to obtain each year. Don’t miss this one.
George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 1738 – 29 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death. His life and with it his reign, which were longer than any of his predecessors, were marked by a series of military conflicts involving his kingdoms, much of the rest of Europe, and places farther afield in Africa, the Americas and Asia. Early in his reign, Great Britain defeated France in the Seven Years' War, becoming the dominant European power in North America and India.
However, many of Britain's American colonies were soon lost in the American War of Independence. Further wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 concluded in the defeat of Napoleon at the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. In the later part of his life, George III had recurrent, and eventually permanent, mental illness. Although it has since been suggested that he had the blood disease porphyria, the cause of his illness remains unknown. Until it was reassessed in the second half of the 20th century, his reputation in the United States was one of a tyrant; and in Britain he became "the scapegoat for the failure of imperialism".
During the 18th century, coins were minted using the screw press, which involved two heavy iron screws pressing the coin metal to the desired thickness. There were a number of ways in which the actual coin-striking process itself could be mechanized. One involved the use of dies with curved faces either striking individual blanks (the rockerpress), or striking onto strips of metal passed between paired rollers each engraved with several dies (the rotary press).
Additional Rarity: A George III silver Proof Pattern Bank of England 5 Shillings & 6 Pence 1811 PR67+ ★ Cameo sold at auction on January 7, 2018 for $168,000.
