10 Pence - Elizabeth II Spade Guinea shield, 1/10 oz silver

The East India Company — formally dissolved by the British Crown in 1874 — was revived as a private luxury brand in 2010 and has since issued a stream of collector coins through the Isle of Man and other licensing arrangements. This piece references the Spade Guinea, a gold coin minted for British circulation between 1787 and 1799, named colloquially for the spade-shaped shield on its reverse. The original Spade Guinea became so familiar that counterfeit versions circulated openly as gaming tokens and trade pieces well into the nineteenth century.