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Auction: 26776 - America 250th Anniversary Sale Ft. Coins, Medals, Banknotes, Objets de Vertu & Ephemera
Lot: 11

Charles II (1660-1685), Guinea, 1683, fourth laureate bust right, with rounded truncation, rev. crowned cruciform shields, no stop after HIB, five strings to harp, edge obliquely milled, 8.31g, 6h (MCE 88; EGC I, 280; S.3344), small reverse scratch to field and edge bruising, otherwise with some peripheral lustre, a pleasing very fine for this notoriously difficult series

Charles II's reign marked a major phase of colonial expansion following the Restoration of the monarchy. Eager to reward loyal supporters and strengthen England's American holdings, he granted numerous proprietary charters: in 1663, eight Lords Proprietors received a charter for Carolina, and in 1664 he granted his brother James, Duke of York, the territory of New Netherland, which England promptly seized from the Dutch and renamed New York in James's honour. In 1681, Charles granted William Penn a vast tract of land in settlement of a royal debt owed to Penn's father, leading to the founding of Pennsylvania as a haven for Quakers and other religious dissenters.


His reign also saw the consolidation of the Navigation Acts, tightening royal control over colonial trade, and the establishment of the Lords of Trade in 1675 to oversee colonial administration more closely. By the time Charles II died in 1685, England's American holdings had grown from a scattering of separate settlements into a more coherent, though still loosely governed, chain of colonies stretching from New England to the Carolinas.

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Estimate
$2,000 to $2,600

Starting price
$2000