William 3rd shilling with 5 string harp

Recently I became aware that a William 3rd Exeter shilling dated 1696 I found while metal detecting had a 5 string harp on the reverse. Others I looked at online had fewer strings. I was wondering how rare or otherwise the 5 string harp type is when compared to the other types?

 

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That's an interesting observation @David Woodhouse .

The simple answer is you have found a rare coin that is desirable. The vast majority have four strings , some have no strings and they probably had a later blocked die as this was the year of the "Great Recoinage".

This is a pamphlet on William III Silver coinage published by E R Jackson Kent in 1961. Unfortunately the plates aren't good enough to discern or count strings but the Harp varieties on shillings and half crowns are recorded as small harp or large harp or no strings.

Here is a 4 string 1696 shilling ex-Association Shipwreck.


I have other shipwreck shillings and I have never considered the harps and tomorrow I will check the strings.
Here is a 5 string Harp in my collection which is considered rare.


Kent didn't seem to be conscious of the number of strings on Harps and probably didn't count them. Missing strings or large or small harps were probably more obvious.
1696 was the year of the "Great Recoinage" and there were three diemakers, James Roettier, John Croker and Henry Harris.
My hypothesis is that one engraver was probably more assiduous than the other two and put more work into his dies. My theory is that the 5 string harp was engraved by Roettier as his were the coins preferred by William III.
In respect of rarity the vast majority of William III shillings do not have five strings on the harp as you deduce so your coin could likely be considered R3.
You have a great find and also make a very astute observation.
This is not a die maker error which I find uninteresting but evidence of superior workmanship by an engraver. Over the years I have sometimes noticed the same coin with the same date but some better than others and sometimes it leaps out at you but with lesser grades can be seen with, for example, missing lines on a leaf on a laurel crown. There is quite pronounced variances on English Civil War coins too and no difference in ancient Roman coins.
BTW I am always happy to share any information contained in books that I own so always feel free to pm or ask on open forum. I have a reasonable collection.