GUINEA, a gold coin, struck and current in Britain. The value or rate of guineas has varied. It was first struck on the footing of twenty shillings; from the scarcity of gold it afterwards advanced to twenty-one shillings and sixpence, but it subsequently sunk to twenty-one shillings. The pound weight troy of gold is cut into forty-four parts and a half, and each part makes a guinea. This coin took its denomination of guinea, because the gold of which the first was struck had been brought from that part of Africa called Guinea; and for the same reason it likewise bore the impression of an elephant.