Pattern & Proof Sets An Exceptional and Very Unusual George II Silver Proof Set with An Intriguing Quoted Provenance
PF001 George II (1727-60), Silver Proof Set, 1746, four coins consisting of Crown, Halfcrown, Shilling, and Sixpence, older bust left, rev crowned cruciform shields, garter star at centre, first two with inscribed edges in raised letters, other two with grained edges, all housed in an old but not contemporary wooden box, with an older label glued inside stating the following in fountain pen ink “These proofs were sent from the Mint to George the second for his approbation, & were afterwards given by his grandson the Duke of Gloucester to General Charles Rainsford” (E.S.C. 126, 608, 1208, 1619; S.3690, 3696, 3704, 3711). All four coins with a matching tone with some light speckling, very attractive with just the lightest of handling marks, the Halfcrown with tiny nick in the obverse field which appears to have happened when new or even in manufacture as the blemish has toned with the coin, the Shilling with the usual raised die flaw in reverse field, a superb quartet and if the provenance is true as stated on the label this set was seen and handled by the King himself. Recently repatriated from Tokyo, Japan, this set is as good as one will encounter, virtually FDC. £35,000 ex Spink and Son Ltd. c.1985 Mr K Kohma Collection, Tokyo, Japan With regard to the earlier history of this set, as according to the label, presumably it was retained in Royal Hands as of 1746 as King George II obviously approved of the coinage. His Grandson was His Royal Highness Prince William Henry of Hanover born at Leicester House, Leicester Square London on 25th November 1743, younger brother of the later King George III. Prince William was honoured with the multiple titles of Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh and Earl of Connaught on the 14th November 1764, having already been made a Knight of the Garter in 1762. He married Maria Walpole in 1766 and had three children, his son later inheriting the title of Duke of Gloucester. He died on 25 th August 1805 at Gloucester House, his summer residence in Weymouth aged 61, where King George III convalesced when suffering from porphyria. In his lifetime he was also Honorary Colonel of the 13th Regiment of Foot and later the 3rd and 1st Regiments of Foot Guards. He was made a Field Marshall on 12th October 1793 and was the 13th Chancellor of Trinity College, Cambridge from 1771 till 1805. This set of coins must have been passed to Prince William some time after the death of King George II (1760), or perhaps before if it had already been in the interim in the hands of his Father Frederick Prince of Wales, who pre-deceased his own Father the King in 1751. What is most significant is that General Charles Rainsford was Equerry to the Duke of Gloucester from 1766-80, so perhaps he was gifted this set of coins towards the end of his service in 1780. According to the Oxford Dictionary of Biography, General Charles Rainsford was born 3 rd February 1728. His uncle of the same name was Deputy Lieutenant at the Tower of London. Destined for a career in the Army from a young age, he served in Germany and Gibraltar as well as in England to face the Jacobite Rising. Ordered home in 1763 for promotion to Second Major in the Grenadier Guards he became Equerry to the Duke of Gloucester in 1766 and was a close confidant. In May 1768 he commanded the Army detachment at the riot at the Kings Bench Prison and later went on to a political career, serving as Member of Parliament on three occasions for three different boroughs. He was Governer of Gibraltar from 1794-5 after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War and finally at Cliff Fort, Tynemouth, Tyne & Wear. He died on 24th May 1809 and is buried with his uncle and first wife in the confines of the Tower of London at St Peter Ad Vincula.
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