Five Guineas (British Coin) - Queen Anne

Queen Anne

The reign of Queen Anne (1702–1714) began with one of the most valuable and exotic of all British coins, the "Vigo" five guinea piece of 1703, which was struck from gold captured from Spanish galleons at the Battle of Vigo Bay in October 1702. A Royal Warrant of 10 February 1703 (1702 Old Style) authorised the word "VIGO" be placed "under our effigies, which inscription we intend as a mark of distinction from the rest of our gold and silver moneys to continue to posterity the remembrance of that glorious action". At a sale of "Vigo" pieces in October 1992 the auctioneers, Glendinning's, noted that certainly fewer than twenty Vigo five guinea pieces survive.

Queen Anne five guineas were subsequently produced in 1705, 1706, 1709, 1711, 1713 and 1714. The obverse of the coin throughout her reign shows the left-facing effigy of the queen, with the legend .The general design of the reverse was similar to that of the previous reign, with four crowned cruciform shields bearing the arms of England, Scotland, Ireland, and France, separated by sceptres and with a central rose, and the legend . However, the union of England and Scotland necessitated a change in the design of the arms on the shield in 1706 (although the actual union took place on 1 May 1707, just over a month after the start of the year, the bill for the Act of Union received the Royal Assent on 6 March 1707 (that is, still in 1706 by the old-style calendar)), therefore coins dated 1706 appear with both reverses. The order of the arms appearing on the cruciform shields until 1706 was England, then Scotland, then France, then Ireland. With the union, the English and Scottish arms appear conjoined on one shield, with the left half being the English arms and the right half being the Scottish arms, and the order of arms appearing on the shields becomes England+Scotland, France, England+Scotland, Ireland. In 1706, with the Union, the central rose on the reverse was replaced by the Star of the Order of the Garter.

The regnal years for this reign are: