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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;The Meat man, post: 26656334, member: 135271&quot;]One of my latest is this 1723 &quot;South Sea Company&quot; shilling:</p><p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center"><i>[ATTACH=full]1700659[/ATTACH] </i></p> <p style="text-align: center"><i>GREAT BRITAIN</i></p> <p style="text-align: center"><i>Time of George I, 1714-1727</i></p> <p style="text-align: center"><i>AR Shilling (26.0mm, 6.00g, 6h)</i></p> <p style="text-align: center"><i>Dated 1723. Royal mint, London, UK</i></p> <p style="text-align: center"><i>Obverse: GEORGIVS·DG·M·BR·FR·ET·HIB·REX·F·D·, laureate and draped bust of King George I right</i></p> <p style="text-align: center"><i>Reverse: BRVN ET·L·DVX S·R·I·A·TH ET·EL· around crowned cruciform shields with central Garter star; divided date above, SS / C in angles</i></p> <p style="text-align: center"><i>References: Numista 13074</i></p> <p style="text-align: center"><i>Mintage: unknown</i></p> <p style="text-align: center"><i>Evenly worn. Toned with faint iridescence.</i></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>In 1711, the War of the Spanish Succession was drawing to a close, and Great Britain, which had recently withdrawn from the conflict, hoped on its conclusion to be able to win trade concessions from the Spanish empire. In anticipation of this the South Sea Company was founded in 1711 and given a monopoly over the slave trade in the South Seas, including Spanish possessions in the Americas. Unfortunately, such concessions from the Spanish were not forthcoming, and the South Sea Company soon found itself in financial difficulties. Still, with King George I himself becoming governor of the company in 1718, investor confidence in the enterprise remained moderately high.</p><p>Then in 1720 Parliament approved a plan to consolidate the national debt under the South Sea Company. This new development was accompanied by political bribery and extensive insider trading and was propped up by overinflated and fraudulent claims about the company’s profit potential. All this caused company shares to soar in what would later be called the “South Sea Bubble.” Share prices rose from £128.5 in January of 1720 to £1,000 in August of that year – only to collapse to £124 by December. Thousands of investors were ruined by the collapse, which also dragged down government finances and the British economy as a whole. An investigation into the bubble revealed the extensive fraud and corruption which had been going on among the company directors, certain Cabinet ministers, and members of Parliament, many of whom were disgraced or imprisoned.</p><p>Despite the collapse, the South Sea Company continued to exist as a trade company, and in 1723 obtained a quantity of silver specie from the East Indies which the Royal Mint (under its director Sir Isaac Newton) minted into coins bearing the South Sea Company’s abbreviation “SSC” on the reverse.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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