Spade Guinea
george 111 gold SPADE guinea
Quality: EF
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Coin Diameter: 25mm (1in).
Coin Weight: 9g (0.3oz)
Under George 111 the guinea was the basis of gold coinage. The type we offer here is known as the Spade Guinea, after the ‘shovel’ shaped shield on the reverse. Minted between 1787 and 1799.
Historical Interest coin-date 1794:
France – in July 1794, Robespierre fell from power and was executed. In August,
Napoleon was imprisoned for about a week. After his release, he returned to the army.
Haitian slaves in the French colony of Saint Domingue (Haiti) on Hispaniola rise under the leadership of Pierre Dominque Toussaint L’Ouverture, 51, Jean Jacques Dessalines, 36, and Henri Christophe, 27. They lead 500,000 blacks and mulattos against the colony’s 40,000 whites.
UK – the winter of 1794/95 was EXCEPTIONALLY SEVERE, with the very cold conditions setting in on Christmas Eve 1794 (though it had been COLD since November). The frost then lasted, with some breaks, until late March.
USA – Jay’s Treaty provides for withdrawal of British forces from the Northwest Territory by 1 June 1796 in exchange for payments of war debts to British citizens. It is ratified on 24 June 1795.
The United States House and Senate Approved An Act to Prohibit the Carrying on the Slave Trade from the United States to any Foreign Place or Country.
March 27 – President George Washington signs “an act to provide a naval armament.” By authorizing the construction of six frigates (what we would call “cruisers” today) the Third Congress in effect creates the U.S. Navy.
The French National Convention emancipates all slaves in the French colonies.
Science – Ernst Chladni argues that meteors are extraterrestrial based on his analysis of the type of iron found in two meteorites that had fallen separately at a great distance from each other. Most scientists of the time do not accept his conclusion, believing that meteorites are caused by lightning striking soil that has been lifted into the sky by storms (hence a common name of the time for a meteorite, “thunder stone”).