In the early 1690s the Royal Mint was struggling with the ‘Great Re-coinage’ to replace the hammered coins that were generally still in circulation which were now worn, clipped and in a pretty bad state. Most of the minting machinery had been around since Cromwell had originally made the decision to change from striking coins by hand to a mechanised process of making coins – and indeed, the first officially ‘milled’ coins occurred a couple of years or so after the Restoration of Charles II, in 1662.
The machinery at the Royal Mint was now over forty years old and not really fit for purpose - and auxiliary mints were set up round the country in Bristol, Chester, Norwich and York to help with the pressure of this re-coinage. However, by and large it was all a bit of a mess – calling in hammered coins that were under weight, officially centrally piercing those that were of good weight and putting them back into circulation and producing enough milled coins to replace those hammered coins withdrawn.
In the spring of 1696 Isaac Newton was appointed Warden of the Royal Mint and he took up his duties in the April of that year at the Tower of London. Newton was quickly caught up in the pressure of the moment - the enormous operation of re-coinage was completed within three years, and afterwards Newton had more time to concentrate on his main duty of investigating and bringing to justice those who clipped and counterfeited the coin of the realm.
Newton was particularly keen on having coins struck at the correct weight and fineness. Such accuracy was unprecedented and Newton’s claim that he had brought the coinage to a ‘much greater degree of exactness than ever was known before’ is certainly not untrue. Newton did introduce both more control and a more scientific approach to the operations at the Mint, especially in its striking efficiency.
A classic example of this is a coin Baldwin’s is selling in their next auction (March 7th.) and this coin, lot 219, a Five Guinea piece of William III dated 1701 which illustrates very well the progress in the mechanics of the striking of a coin. Under Newton the pressure of striking had been increased – which meant that the dies could be more deeply engraved as this increased pressure of the strike would ensure that even the deepest engraved details would fill with gold.
Compare this with the same coin struck two years earlier in 1699 ! The newly designed portrait, so much more deeply engraved, struck with more weight produces a fantastic portrait of William III and puts the earlier coin into the shadow – with its flat, weakly struck portrait. The ‘Fine Work’ portrait of 1701 must be considered a masterpiece produced by Newton and is generally considered one of Britain’s most beautiful coins.
The 1701 Five Guineas that Baldwin’s is auctioning is in beautiful condition, graded by NGC at AU58 is estimated at £40,000-50,000. Also, we do have the earlier 1699 five guineas in stock and although this is only in Very Fine, it is rarer and priced at £19,000.
Richard Gladdle, British Coin Expert “This 1701 Five Guineas is in beautiful condition and is generally considered one of Britain’s most beautiful coins.”