Two Guinea Piece: George III (obverse); Shield of Arms (reverse) (1773): Art, History and Details

Two Guinea Piece: George III (obverse); Shield of Arms (reverse) (1773) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is John Sigismund Tanner (British, 1705–1775).

The work and its context

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

This very rare piece is another example of the fine patterns being produced at this period. With the coming reform of the coinage, the five- and two-guinea pieces do not appear again for general circulation. John Sigismund Tanner came to England in 1728, was appointed chief engraver in 1741 and died in 1775. He was responsible for a large number of pattern coins and for most of the second "old head" type of currency coins issued during the reign of George II.

Object facts

• Title: Two Guinea Piece: George III (obverse); Shield of Arms (reverse)
• Date: 1773
• Creator attribution: John Sigismund Tanner (British, 1705–1775)
• Culture: England, George III, 1760-1820
• Type: Coins
• Technique: gold
• Dimensions: Diameter: 3.2 cm (1 1/4 in.)
• Collection: MED - Numismatics
• Department: Medieval Art
• Accession number: 1969.210

A detail from the museum

The year this coin was minted, colonists in Boston raided three British ships throwing several hundred chests of tea into the harbor.

Collection credit

The Norweb Collection

Further reading listed by the museum

• 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.