Description

Anne, 1702-1714. Silver Medal 1702, 15.41 g. Coronation of Anne. Unsigned. Bust, crowned and draped. ANNA . D : G : MAG : BR : FR : ET . HIB : REGINA. Rv. A heart within branches of oak, resting on a pedestal inscribed ATAVIS REGIBVS and threaded through crown above. ENTIRELY ENGLISH. Plain edge. 35.9 mm. Eimer 388. MI ii 227/1. van Loon IV, 345,1. Saunders/Vanhoudt 1702-11. Sehr schön-vorzüglich / Very Fine-Extremely Fine. Kleine Randfehler / Minor edge flaws.

From the auction Schweizerische Kreditanstalt, Bern, April 1982, lot 717.

William III died in 1702 of pneumonia, a complication from a broken collarbone following a fall from his horse. William's lack of children and the death in 1700 of his nephew the Duke of Gloucester, the son of his sister-in-law Anne, born 6 February 1665, threatened the Protestant succession. So, Anne herself was put onto the throne first. She was crowned on St George's Day, 23 April 1702. Affected by gout, she was carried to Westminster Abbey in an open sedan chair, with a low back to permit her train to flow out behind her.

The danger of a reversion to catholic rule was finally averted by placing William and Mary's cousins, the Protestant Hanoverians, in line to the throne after Anne with the Act of Settlement 1701. Anne was Queen of England, Scotland, and Ireland from 8 March 1702, and Queen of Great Britain and Ireland following the ratification of the Acts of Union 1707 merging the kingdoms of Scotland and England, until her death on 1 August 1714.