> as lemmas

a. An English gold coin, not coined since 1813, first struck in 1663 with the nominal value of 20s., but from 1717 until its disappearance circulating as legal tender at the rate of 21s. double guinea: a coin equal in value to two guineas. spade guinea: a guinea of the pattern coined 1787–1800, so called from the form of the escutcheon on the reverse.In 1663 the Royal Mint was authorized to coin gold pieces of the value of 20s. ‘in the name and for the use of the Company of Royal Adventurers of England trading with Africa’; these pieces were to bear for distinction the figure of a little elephant, and 44½ of them were to contain 1 lb. troy of ‘our Crowne gold’. The 20s. pieces of the African company received the popular name of guineas almost as soon as they were issued, as being intended for use in the Guinea trade, and made of gold from Guinea; and the name was extended to later coins of the same intrinsic value. As silver was the sole standard till 1816, the value of the guinea was from the first subject to market fluctuations, according to the condition of the silver coin, which became so bad that the guinea rose as high as 30s. in 1695. In December 1717 it was fixed at 21s., after which it underwent no further alteration. The latest coinage of guineas took place in 1813; the sovereign, of the value of 20s., was first issued in 1817.