8 Reales - Mexico 1735 - From The Rooswijk Shipwreck

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Author	Replies: 8 / Views: 8,293
MathieuMa Pillar of the Community France 1591 Posts	Posted 02/08/2012 04:23 am Here is an excellent 8 reales coming from the Rooswijk shipwreck. It has its almost full weight of 26,9 grams and measures 41mm (instead of the 38mm after 1936) As you can see, its conservation is excellent, there is almost no sea-water effect on it, and on the edge. The second edge overlap is a bit odd (and very visible) : there is more metal on one side. Report this Post to the Staff

realeswatcher Pillar of the Community United States 1962 Posts	Posted 02/08/2012 06:07 am Interesting piece... Likely was a bit of an overweight planchet when minted. Little handling wear, but that has to have lost more than 0.2g to the sea... I like the big planchets of the 1735 - allows for full denticles, which frame the design well... IMO more attractive than the pieces of the early 1760's where there is practically no denticle showing. Report this Post to the Staff
nicwinner Valued Member Australia 262 Posts	Posted 02/08/2012 06:09 am washed Report this Post to the Staff
MathieuMa Pillar of the Community France 1591 Posts	Posted 02/08/2012 06:23 am nicwinner : I don't mean to be rude, but your last two posts don't mean much ... (washed, common coin, I won't take it ...) Please either elaborate and share interesting stuffs with everyone, or keep quiet and watch. Thanks. Oh, regarding this one, sure it has at least been washed - it comes from the seabed ... I suppose they did some preservation on it in order to remove the salt and sediments. Edited by MathieuMa 02/08/2012 06:25 am Report this Post to the Staff
realeswatcher Pillar of the Community United States 1962 Posts	Posted 02/08/2012 06:27 am Quote: washed Yeah, they did go a little heavy-handed on the "conservation" (aka, cleaning off of sea-caused accretions). Many of the Rooswijk pieces are conserved silvery (stripped of tone), and this one was buffed or polished some beyond that... Considering that many Rooswijk cobs/pillars display very little corrosion post-conservation, a gentler process that would maybe have left more patina behind probably could have been employed with satisfactory results. Report this Post to the Staff
MathieuMa Pillar of the Community France 1591 Posts	Posted 02/08/2012 06:35 am Yep, considering the patina left near HISPAN for example, they would have made a better job not "cleaning" too much ... I suppose they were more after "treasure collectors" than coin collectors then ... :) Report this Post to the Staff
War Nickel Valued Member United States 172 Posts	Posted 02/08/2012 06:37 am @MathieuMa Hope its ok, all I can contribute in this post are questions and some comments. @All Wow, that is one of the, if not THE finest 8 Reale I have ever seen in any photo, or any of the 8 Reales my father had (probably a couple hundred, many in AU condition...) Ok, it was washed by the wave lo these many years, of course, and then it was said it was preserved. I presume that it was done professionally? I imagine white linen gloves, and lots of distilled water rinses to get the salt water out of every tiny pore and crevice...are there any links somebody can point me at that give an idea of what is involved with this kind of preservation-or is that a jealously guarded trade secret that is proprietary? When a coin like this is sent to a TPG, I imagine they annotate it much like the coins from the Binion Hoard? Would its value be enhanced/dehanced (dis-enhanced? de-graded?) because it was submerged, or does the romance of being from a shipwreck actually help it objectively? Subjectively, I lust after this coin. In reality, I wonder, about how much is its market value, ballpark? Anybody know? Also, was this photo from a members collection, or an auction website? If you have it now, I am psyched for you! Report this Post to the Staff
MathieuMa Pillar of the Community France 1591 Posts	Posted 02/08/2012 06:55 am War Nickel : no worries, it's just that 6 posts in 30 minutes with no more than 5 words, or even one word sometime ... is not very constructive :) I'm sure we have seen better 8 reales here. This one is a bit special though, as the cleaning done to it and the patina left give it a nice look imho (to coin collectors it's "too clean" - I would have preferred more patina left as well ...) Also I think that except the 1733 ones, we didn't saw others here struck on a broad planchet. As realeswatcher said ... the denticles are a nice frame for the coin's design. Considering the large amount of coins from this wreck, I'm sure they didn't took time to clean each of them individually (hence the clean look) I suppose they did many distilled water bathes to remove salt, electrolysis was not needed (this wreck gave excellent coins with minimal damages) - and I suppose they polished them in some way ... I don't think TPG would grade it because of this - but may give the wreck's name on the slab though. I actually wonder if they grade wreck's coins ? (maybe they mention environmental damage to it ...) I'm not sure though it would be marked for this wreck, as the coin didn't came with a certificate (I mean, a complete certificate - signed and with pictures). Sure, I have a little booklet that came with it, but not much more :) The fact it comes from a wreck helps the price for sure though - although for this shipwreck there were many coins in excellent quality, so it's not a wreck giving much premium over regular prices. There are some shops specialized in wreck though selling dream with overpriced coins - and there are buyers for those :) The pictures are mine, I took them this morning under natural light (it's freezing here, there was a nice blue sky / sun in the morning) As for the price, it's say between 350/450 USD depending on the market and who is buying / selling ? There are some here for example : http://www.newworldtreasures.com/rooswijk.htm (they mention : cleaned to a bright finish on the most expensive one ... they are aware of the issue on those as well) Report this Post to the Staff
colonialjohn Pillar of the Community United States 1757 Posts	Posted 02/13/2012 09:04 am What I also found with shipwreck coins in a much more damaged state is that their silver alloy content tends to 99% silver as the Copper and zinc are oxidized away from the alloy leaving just silver even with surface silver enrichment taken into account. Report this Post to the Staff
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