The 1813 Guinea is the last year the denomination was struck for currency and represents a new design since the previous spade type Guinea some 14 years earlier. It was termed the military Guinea as it was produced to help pay the English soldiers advancing into France and was only produced for a short period of time, between February and June 1813

Financing campaigns overseas impacted coin production in different ways. The Peninsular War (1808–14) between Bourbon Spain and Portugal, assisted by Britain, and the occupying forces of the First French Empire was a catalyst for the return of the large-scale minting of gold coins in Britain. Dated 1813, these coins came to be known as the military guinea because they were shipped to the Duke of Wellington for use in the Iberian Peninsula. These were the last guineas to be struck and about 360,000 were produced in total.