1696 Crown and Shilling from the HMS Association - A Shipwreck Two-for-One

Omegaraptor

Went to the LCS today looking for better date and semi key Seated coinage as I normally do. Didn’t see much that caught my eye, so went to the far end of the shop with world coins. On the top shelf of the case was two British shipwreck silver coins. The price looked great compared to online comps - shop wanted $75 for the crown and $18 for the shilling. Ended up offering $85 and taking both.

These coins are from the HMS Association, which sank on October 22, 1707 after wrecking on the Isles of Scilly, taking the lives of over 800 sailors and Admiral Sir Cloudesley Shovell’s personal treasure, which included these two coins. The shipwreck was discovered in 1964 and recovery efforts began in 1967, continuing throughout the 1970s. In total, over 10000 coins were recovered, along with countless other relics.

The crowns seem to be tougher to come by than the other silver denominations. Looks like I finally own shipwreck coins now, which are their own interesting area of collecting covering enormous amounts of history and definitely feature a LOT more than Spanish Empire coins and double eagles!

harasha

Coincidentally, I just finished reading Benjamin Franklin's comments upon this shipwreck and his own narrow escape, in his autobiography.