Shipwreck Coins From The "Admiral Gardner"

Sure don't, dom, but would love to see pics of what you purchased.

Jim

Yep, the story's legit. The Admiral Gardner sank in the English Channel in 1809. In 1986, if I recall the story correctly, some barrels of copper coins were retrieved from the wreck site. The coins inside them were in the name of the East India Company's Madras Presidency and had been freshly minted in Britain and on their way to India aboard the ship when it went down. The barrels were sealed pretty tight, and many of the coins had suffered from only minimal corrosion, despite being made of pure copper.

The coins came onto the market back in the late 1980's, and have been floating around the dealers and collectors ever since. I think it's actually harder to find a Madras 1808 10 cash coin that wasn't salvaged off this wreck.

I've seen a couple, packaged up by a local dealer here in Oz at the time with a little certificate of authenticity and everything. I was a YN back then and recall that I couldn't afford to buy one from their mail-order catalogue they sent me.

I have a couple of them in what look to be a little corroded states but with the emain details and most of the writing showing that I picked up for about 2-5 GBP each. Then I have a much nicer one, though it looks slightly scratchy, it has all clear details and a lot of lustre remaining - that one cost me 14-15 GBP on ebay (found all on ebay.com).

i just got back from a cruise in the eastern caribbean and picked one of these up(my brother-in-law did also). paid 25 dollars apiece for them. from the sound of it and the couple I saw on ebay we might of overpaid. they're cool nonetheless. got a little coa with it and a newspaper clipping from when it happened. the coins themselves or in great shape, a little dirty but still have great detail. we are both happy with them. picked them up in st. thomas.