Posted 11/17/2010 08:10 am
Admiral Gardner website. Admiral Gardner EIC coppers are one of the most affordable "shipwreck coins"; while perhaps not as common as "Atocha" pieces-of-eight, they're much cheaper.
As a "shipwreck coin" it would have been cleaned somewhat after recovery - even "cold water and thick mud" won't prevent a shiny copper coin from reacting with seawater after 100 years.
The discolouration on the coin at the moment is a byproduct of it's immersion and later recovery; as such it's part of the coin's history and interest, and I would say that it should be kept intact along with its "shipwreck" provenance. If you want a nice, uncleaned, problem-free example of this coin, don't buy an Admiral Gardner one.
That ebay seller appears to be basically honest, though adding "pirate" to the auction title is somewhat of a stretch; the age of piracy was mostly over by 1809.
As a "shipwreck coin" it would have been cleaned somewhat after recovery - even "cold water and thick mud" won't prevent a shiny copper coin from reacting with seawater after 100 years.
The discolouration on the coin at the moment is a byproduct of it's immersion and later recovery; as such it's part of the coin's history and interest, and I would say that it should be kept intact along with its "shipwreck" provenance. If you want a nice, uncleaned, problem-free example of this coin, don't buy an Admiral Gardner one.
That ebay seller appears to be basically honest, though adding "pirate" to the auction title is somewhat of a stretch; the age of piracy was mostly over by 1809.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
