By George!

George II, 1758 AR Shilling

Old laureate and draped bust left, GEORGIVS•II•DEI•GRATIA• / Crowned cruciform shields, plain angles, 17-58 M•B•F•ET• H•REX F D B• ET•D•S•R•I• A•T•ET•E• around. S-3704.


The reverse legend is quite impressive! The abbreviations, spelled out, read: Magnae Britanniae Franciae ET Hiberniae REX Fidei Defensor Brunsviciensis ET Luneburgen-sis Dux Sacra Romani Imperii Archi-Thesaurarius ET Elector. This translates to: "By the Grace of God, King of Britain, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, Duke of Brunswick and Luneburg, High Treasurer and Elector of the Holy Roman Empire." I'm pretty impressed, but then again, I'm only a Business Process Analyst!

I am an Anglophile... always have been... always will be! My wife and I honeymooned in England in April 2007. We're both hoping to retire somewhere in England. Heck, there's even a town named Telford. It must be a great place, right?!

I've long been fascinated with English history. Being 50% English and 50% Danish, I suppose that that fascination is only natural, if not inevitable. A good portion of England was ruled off and on by the Danes from the 9th through the 11th centuries, with England uniting under the Danish king Canute. So you see, it's in my heritage... both of 'my people' shared the same island!

I've wanted to assemble a collection of coins of the English monarchy ever since I began collecting ancient coins. I didn't start my English monarch collection, however, until just last year. I've since acquired a few beautiful English coins, mostly from the monarchs of the House of Hanover (George I, 1714-1727 to Victoria, 1837-1901). This particular coin is from George II, who ruled from 1727-1760.

This is without a doubt, the coin I enjoy most in my English monarch collection! The toning accentuates the devices and legends and it's a big enough coin for my eyes to see the detail! So far, my experience with collecting these English coins has been every bit as fulfilling as collecting ancients.