Great Britain Half Guinea and Guinea 1785

These are valuable coins. The one in our picture is a full guinea (not half guinea) dated 1785 with no problems such as scratches, nicks, or cleanings. It sold for 1400 British pounds (about $1850 US dollars) during a 2016 auction by Spink in London. CoinQuest thanks Spink for use of the coin photo.

Here are the stats:

HALF GUINEA, 1762 to 1786: 20 mm diameter, 0.123 troy ounces gold
GUINEA, 1761 to 1786: 24 mm diameter, 0.246 troy ounces gold

These coins, even if they are heavily damaged (DO NOT CLEAN COINS, CLEANING RUINS VALUE) are always worth at least their gold value. Look up the current price of gold at kitco.com. If, for instance, gold is trading at $1500 US dollars per troy ounce, the base value (BV, value due to precious metal content) would be 0.123 x 1500 = $185 for a half guinea and $370 for a guinea.

For coins in good condition, catalog values are substantially more than base value, as follows:

HALF GUINEA (most dates, see below)
worn: BV + $100 US dollars approximate catalog value
average circulated: BV + $300
well preserved: BV + $1000
fully uncirculated: BV + $1800

GUINEA (most dates, see below)
worn: BV + $100 US dollars approximate catalog value
average circulated: BV + $200
well preserved: BV + $800
fully uncirculated: BV + $2200

The listings above give approximate catalog values for most of the coins you see today. A small number of coins carry *good dates* and these are worth more. If you coin does not appear in the list below, use the list above for value. Values shown for the *good dates* are for coins in well preserved condition.

HALF GUINEA GOOD DATES
1762: $4000 well preserved
1763: $4500
1765: $2000
1775: $4000
1783: $6000

GUINEA GOOD DATES
1761: $6000
1763: $3500
1764: $3000
1778: $2000

Remember that CoinQuest uses catalog values. Actual buy and sell values will be different (usually lower). See our Important Terminology page for information about converting catalog values to actual values.
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