How many times have you wondered about where your coin has been or who may have handled it? With my new acquisition for the most part I know the answer to that. It's been at the bottom of the sea, some 1500 feet down hanging out with the fishes for some 113 years!
This 1875 Sydney mint Sovereign, along with some 28,000 other gold sovereigns were among the cargo of the Royal Mail Steamship "Douro" when it sank on April 5 1882. Recovered in 1995, this coin went on sale at a Spink auction London in 1996 and earlier today a nice post lady delivered it to me.
Seems to have stood life under the sea in salt water for all that time pretty well! The reverse is a really nice UNC, has mirror fields, maybe a bit of fish guts on it.
I always wanted a shipwreck coin, and now I have one. Unreal.
Lear, that coin is beautiful. I have always wanted a decent wreck coin but have never spent the money. The condition is amazing, all things considered. If you do not mind, approximately how much did it cost? Jim
Hi Jim, it wasn't cheap - $465 AUD. It grades at around aUNC for the obverse and UNC for the reverse. Book value for an 1875s in that condition is aUNC $800 and for UNC $2250 so I didn't do so bad.
A beautiful coin, particularly for that long under the sea. It must have been well-buried, and those few spots may be tarnished copper in the alloy. What a cool piece of history!
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