William II of Scotland (1694-1702), gold Half-Pistole, 1701, issued by the Darien Company, Scottish value of £12, laureate head left, rising sun over a sea below, Latin legend and toothed border surrounding, GVLIELMVS DEI. GRATIA., rev. struck en medaille, crowned quartered shield of arms, crowned W to left, crowned R to right, Latin legend with date and toothed border surrounding, MAG BRIT. FRA. ET. HIB. REX. 1701. edge grained, weight 3.42g (Burns 2 fig. 1079; S.5677). Attractively toned, with red colour some light surface marks, has been graded and slabbed by NGC as XF45, very rare.
NGC Certification 4224657-002.
Provenance:
Ex Stacks of New York, USA, 8th April 1989, lot 421.
Ex Dr Lawrence A. Adams Collection, Classical Numismatic Group, Auction 100, 7th October 2015, lot 1100.
The Latin legends translate as on the obverse "William by the Grace of God," and abbreviated on the reverse as "King of Great Britain, France and Ireland. 1701"
The Darien Company was formed to found a New World Colony on the Panama Isthmus for Scotland. An excellent account of the doomed endeavour can be read in the "Darien Disaster" by John Prebble, though there is little mention of the coinage that was produced, perhaps a mute point after so many Scottish people had already lost their lives uprooting from their homeland to the Darien Gap. The coinage was made from gold dust imported by the Darien Company in trade with Africa, but ultimately the disaster nearly bankrupted Scotland and led directly towards the Union with England in 1707.
