Two Guineas 2023 Spade - King Charles III Coronation, Coin from Saint Helena - detailed information

Saint Helena is a small island in the South Atlantic Ocean which is part of the British overseas territory of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha. The currency of the island is the Saint Helena pound, fixed at parity with the pound sterling. The island has authorised some private mints to issue coins under its jurisdiction, which come in a variety of sizes. Some of them are non-standard and/or one-off issues in gold, such as this one.

This coin is a modern re-creation of the so-called "spade" guinea coin issued during the reign of King George III of the United Kingdom.

First introduced in 1669, the denomination weighed 4.2 grams, was 20 millimetres in diameter, and had a diagonally milled edge. First seen on one Guinea gold coins in 1787, this unencumbered reverse motif was the work of Lewis Pingo (1743 - 1830) whose design features a simple crowned shield of the Royal Arms. The reference of a “spade” Guinea is attributed to the shape of the crest - it may also reference the nickname of King George III who was colloquially known in his day as “the Farmer King”. The shield is divided in four quarters, each quadrant includes representation for England and Scotland, France, Ireland and the German possessions of the Hanoverian dynasty. The last Spade Guineas were minted in 1799, with the very last gold one Guinea coins being minted in 1813.

The Guinea was Britain’s first machine-struck gold coin, minted with a milled edge and edge lettering to put a stop to "clipping", where criminals would shave the edges off earlier hammered coins to collect fragments of the gold and silver. Interestingly, "Guinea" was originally just the coin’s nickname as much of the gold used to strike it came from Africa’s Guinea Coast, but it became so widely used that it was officially adopted in 1720. Even though it has been out of production since it was replaced by the Sovereign in 1816, the Guinea remains familiar to us today, mainly due to the fact that the sale of livestock and racehorses is still quoted in Guineas. Payment is made to the original one-pound value, with the post-1717 five pence difference taken by the auctioneer as commission.

The 2023 Spade Guinea issue commemorates the coronation of King Charles III, the first such event in 70 years. The King inherited the throne from his mother Queen Elizabeth II, who reigned since 1952 (her coronation ceremony was in 1953) until her death in 2022, after 70 years on the throne.