Five Guineas: Anne (obverse); Shields and rose (reverse) (1703): Art, History and Details

Five Guineas: Anne (obverse); Shields and rose (reverse) (1703) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

The coinage during Anne's reign remained fairly constant to the designs inaugurated in 1662. Before the Act of Union with Scotland (1706), the arms of England and Scotland remained separate, as shown. After the act the two arms were conjoined on one shield. The word Vigo denotes that the coins were struck from gold captured from the Spanish at the Battle of Vigo Bay (1702). Although silver coins bearing the Vigo inscription are less rare, the three gold denominations bearing the symbol are all extremely rare.

Object facts

• Title: Five Guineas: Anne (obverse); Shields and rose (reverse)
• Date: 1703
• Culture: England, Anne, 1702-1714
• Type: Coins
• Technique: gold
• Dimensions: Diameter: 2.9 cm (1 1/8 in.)
• Collection: MED - Numismatics
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1969.203

A detail from the museum

Of the five guineas struck for circulation, this type is the rarest.

Collection credit

The Norweb Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• Sotheby & Co. (London, England). Coins and Medals, the Property of the Late Reginald Huth, Esq., of 32, Phillimore Gardens, London, Sold by Order of Noel Huth, Esq. London: Sotheby's, 1927.
• Cleveland Museum of Art, and Emery May Norweb. English Gold Coins, Ancient to Modern Times, On Loan to the Cleveland Museum of Art from the Norweb Collection. [Catalog. 1968.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.