Five Guineas of Anne

The Five Guineas of Anne is a large gold coin and the highest denomination of the milled gold coinage struck during the reign of Queen Anne (1702-1714). The photographed piece is the famous 1703 issue, which carries the word VIGO beneath the queen's bust, and it was made by machine at the Tower Mint as part of the fully milled English coinage.

The obverse shows Anne in profile facing left with a Latin legend and the VIGO inscription below the truncation of the bust; the reverse displays crowned shields bearing the royal coats of arms. As the five-guinea piece it was the flagship gold coin of the period, far larger and heavier than the guinea from which it took its name.

Because of its size, its early-eighteenth-century date, and above all the VIGO provenance mark, the Anne Five Guineas is one of the most celebrated and sought-after coins in the whole British series.

Anne came to the throne in 1702, the year the War of the Spanish Succession broke out. In October 1702 an Anglo-Dutch fleet attacked the Spanish treasure fleet and its French escort sheltering in Vigo Bay on the coast of Galicia in northwest Spain. Bullion taken in that action was sent to the Tower Mint, and coins struck from the captured gold were marked VIGO below the queen's bust to commemorate the victory.

The Five Guineas was the largest of Anne's milled gold coins. The VIGO strikings are dated 1703 and were produced only in small numbers, since the quantity of prize gold available for the highest denomination was very limited. Five-guinea pieces were also struck later in the reign without the VIGO mark, both before and after the 1707 Union of England and Scotland.

The denomination continued under later monarchs and remained a fixture of English and British gold coinage until the guinea system was reformed in the early nineteenth century. Within that long series the 1703 VIGO Five Guineas holds a special place as a rare and historically resonant issue tied to a specific naval victory.

The obverse shows Queen Anne in profile facing left, draped, within a Latin legend naming her queen, with the word VIGO placed below the truncation of the bust. That VIGO inscription is the single most important diagnostic of this issue and marks gold captured at Vigo Bay.

The reverse displays crowned shields bearing the royal coats of arms, arranged in a cross (cruciform) pattern with scepters in the angles, all within a Latin legend. On the pre-Union coinage of 1703 the shields carry the separate arms of England, Scotland, Ireland, and France; confirming the year 1703 in the design helps place the coin firmly in the VIGO issue.

Being a milled coin, it has a regular round flan and a marked edge, typically carrying an edge inscription rather than a plain or grained edge. Confirm the denomination by the coin's large size and heavy weight relative to the smaller guinea, half-guinea, and two-guinea pieces of the same reign.

The Anne Five Guineas is a large, high-value gold coin, and the 1703 VIGO issue in particular is a celebrated rarity that trades far above its bullion content. Prices depend heavily on grade, quality of strike, originality, and eye appeal, with authenticated examples reaching well into the five- and six-figure range for a genuine VIGO piece in collectable condition.

Because the type is famous and extremely valuable, it has been widely reproduced, and cast copies, later fantasies, and modern replicas exist. Weight, dimensions, the edge inscription, and the crispness of the VIGO lettering are important checks, and any single quoted figure should be treated as general context rather than a firm valuation.

Anyone assessing a specific coin should consult recent auction results for the matching date and variety and seek expert examination, since the difference between a genuine VIGO Five Guineas and a copy or a plain non-VIGO issue is enormous in value.