Post Your United Kingdom (Great Britain) Coin Acquisitions.

Okay I understand - cheapest coin, cheapest production and no doubt why so many of mine are fairly nice compared to the worn rubbish I call my halfpenny and penny collection.
Zookeeperz, your coin is very nice - yet I still see the flatness all over the coin - what grade are you placing on your farthing.

Everyone else - yes your are right. Those halfcrowns came off a ship called the HMS Elingamite. This was a screw steamer built in Newcastle on Tyne in 1887 and used in the UK - Australia/NZ route bringing passengers and cargo for the 6 week or longer trip.

Often the ballast featured barrels full of coins for both countries as both used British coins at the time (Australians only got silver and bronze, but NZ also got gold pieces minted in both the UK and Australia).

In November 1902, the Elingamite was on another cruise. On November 9th it left Newcastle, Australia with a cargo of 154 passengers and some £17,400 (Amounts vary) of gold and silver coins for the New Zealand banks, amongst the coins were £4,500 worth of (9,000 coins) of Sydney mint half sovereigns dated 1901 and 1902. The rest of the coins were mostly Halfcrowns, Florins and Shillings dating mostly from 1900, but coins back to 1885 have been recovered. The key factor is none of the silver was new. The British were giving us slightly used coins. As you can see under all the gunk is a coin in VF - gVF condition as they were being used from 1900 to 1902 (That much wear so quickly).

Anyway on November 15th the Elingamite hit rocks near 3 Kings Islands (some 30km north west of Cape Reinga) in fog and due to bad navigation and sunk, some 34 people died and the rest were rescued including crew. Also lost was all the bullion. An enquiry saw the captain and crew cleared. It was a bad year for shipwrecks. Earlier on in 1902 another shipwreck occurred and it had bodies of Chinese people bound back for ancestral burial in China.

The coins stayed in the sea for 65 years until there was salvage in 1965 to 1967 by Kelly Tarlton (Who later opened an aquarium in some old sewers in Auckland in 1985) and many of the coins were recovered. Spasmodic recoveries have happened since and Elingamite coins freuqently hit the market. The average price for one is about $50 - $100 each. The gold coins are much more.

Because of the rough sea environment and 6 decades under the sea, most of the coins are blackened and stained, a huge amount were fused together or stuck to rocks and corroded. My pair are amongst the much better ones. The man I got them off has a big box of them he brought years ago.

You can always tell Elingamite treasure by its stained and corroded appearance and the date 1900 on many of the silver pieces.

Excellent!


Very nice!

Fantastic!

Very nice!

What's the die pairing?

Nice example!

My offering of the day a nice UNC fully lustred 1911 George V Bronze Penny though if you send these to TPG's 90% will come back RB and not RD one day they will realise Bronze is darker than copper

And what a lovely offering it is too!




Thanks for the reply, Zookeeperz, I appreciate it. Knowledge is what I'm seeking and I've come to the right place obviously. It's very intriguing though. Now I'm at home and in front of the computer I can actually have a look at things properly instead of on my phone.

I've checked Spink, and my coin resembles Obv 6 far more closely than Obv 7, but I've googled Freeman 282, which is what it was sold as, and it does indeed have 16 leaves and the curl. All very interesting.

Much obliged to you for the pointers.