Shipwrecks
SimonW
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Post your shipwreck coins, artifacts, stories and facts here.
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SimonW
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The Reigersdaal was a Dutch East India Company ship that sank off the coast of South Africa near Dassen Island in 1747. After a storm snapped its anchor line, the ship ran aground on a reef, leading to the loss of most of its crew and cargo of silver and lead. Discovered in 1979, the wreck has been successfully salvaged, yielding thousands of Mexican silver pillar dollars and other artifacts.
The sinking
Date: October 25, 1747.
Cause: The ship was anchored near Robben and Dassen Islands to take on fresh supplies, but a gale snapped its anchor cable. The crew tried to sail north, but the ship was unable to handle the wind properly and ran aground on a reef.
Location: Near Springfontein Point, off the West Coast of South Africa.
Loss of life: The ship had 297 souls on board, but by the time it reached Dassen Island, 125 had already died from scurvy. Another 157 died in the wreck, with only 20 survivors in total.
The salvage:
Discovery: The wreck was discovered in 1979 by a salvage team led by Brian Clark and Tubby Gericke.
Salvaged items: The initial salvage recovered cannons and lead ingots. Later salvages recovered a significant treasure, primarily silver coins.
Treasure recovered: Thousands of Mexican silver 8 reales coins, also known as "pillar dollars," were found, many in pristine condition.
Historical significance: The coins are significant as they represent a tangible link to the global trade and economic impact of Spanish silver during the Age of Exploration.
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My son’s first treasure find from the 1733 fleet disaster off Florida. Very few “El Lerri” coins with certs exist.
From my visit to Mel Fisher's Museum , Key West, 2017:
Large, green-glazed stoneware hanging pot with small handles in rim, ex-pirate ship Golden Fleece (1686). 1024 grams. 6½" in diameter at top, 5" tall . Thick-walled, flat-bottomed piece with round-holed handles on either side of top, unglazed on the outside, dark green glaze on the inside, some wormy encrustation, intact but with two large vertical cracks. From the pirate ship Golden Fleece (1686), with original certificate from Captain Tracy Bowden through his contract with the Dominican Republic
The "Golden Fleece" was the pirate ship of Captain Joseph Bannister, wreck site located in Samana Bay, Dominican Republic found by divers John Chatterton and John Mattera in 2008.
The ship's final moments involved a fierce two-day battle with two British frigates, which led Bannister to scuttle and destroy the ship after a cannon explosion, rather than letting it be captured. The search for the wreck was the subject of the book Pirate Hunters by Robert Kurson.
Ship's history and destruction:
Joseph Bannister was a captain who turned to piracy, commandeering the ship Golden Fleece around 1684.
The chase: Two British Royal Navy ships pursued Bannister to what is now the Dominican Republic.
Bannister set up cannon batteries on land and fought the navy for two days, eventually forcing them to retreat.
Scuttling the ship: After the battle, Bannister scuttled the Golden Fleece in Samana Bay, possibly due to severe damage from an explosion, and escaped on a smaller captured ship.
The wreck remained lost for over 350 years, with the historical record pointing to the wrong location.
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Spanish galleon Santa Maria de la The Consolación was held up in port in 1681 after failing to receive its silver coins from the Potosi mint, causing it to miss sailing with the rest of the Armada del Sur.
Upon sailing north to the rally point the lone ship was spotted by pirates, reported to be the infamous pirate Bartholomew Sharp an English pirate, the pirates gave chase.
In order to escape, the captain tried to ground the ship on the nearby Santa Clara Island, nicknamed "Isla de Muerto" (Island of the Dead), but it struck a reef in the process.
Scuttling the ship: The crew was evacuated, and the ship was deliberately set on fire by the crew to keep the treasure from falling into the pirates' hands. The enraged pirates could not recover the treasure, and local legend states they retaliated against the crew. The wreck was forgotten for centuries until its discovery in 1997.
Modern discovery: The shipwreck was discovered in 1997, and subsequent marine archeological work, guided by manifests found in Spanish archives, identified the wreck. Modern salvage has recovered much of the treasure, including silver cob coins from the Potosi mint.
There is some valid concerns as to whether this story is true. There’s strong evidence that Baortholemew Sharp wasn’t even on the west coast of South America at this time. This might very well be a coverup for deceitful and/or negligent activities. The ship was overloaded with silver, as evidenced by the fact that much more silver was recovered than was on the original manifest. The truth may never be known, but the official story is so good, maybe nobody really wants to! 😂
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Australia: 1877-S gold “Shield” sovereign of Queen Victoria, from the RMS Duoro shipwreck
This Australian sovereign was struck at the Sydney mint in 1877 and was part of the cargo of the British Royal Mail steamship Douro, which sank in a nighttime collision with the Spanish ship Yrurac Bat off Cape Finisterre near the Spanish and Portuguese coast, on the evening of April 1, 1882.
All of Duoro’s passengers and 32 of her crew were saved, but the captain and five of his officers- and the ship’s treasure of gold coins and bullion- sank with Douro in 1,500 feet of water. 53 people aboard the Spanish ship also perished when it too sank.
The wreck was found in 1993 and salvage operations were completed by 1996. There were some 28,000 gold coins brought up from the Douro wreck. Most were gold sovereigns, but there were also some rare Brazilian and Portuguese coins.
I find shipwreck coins fascinating. I guess there’s the natural appeal of a historical gold coin here, but also some touches of romance, tragedy, and adventure. To me, it would have been a lovely enough coin anyway, but the added history behind the shipwreck pedigree made it irresistible, so I threw caution to the wind and did what I had to do to beat the competition and win it at auction.
Collector since 1976. On the CU forums here since 2001.
@lordmarcovan that’s particularly cool shipwreck coin! Very pretty too
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Concepcion,
sank in 1641 off Hispaniola
The Concepción was one of the most significant Spanish wrecks of all time, serving the Spanish with a loss of over 100 tons of silver and gold treasure. The Almiranta of a
21-ship fleet, the Concepción was already in poor repair when the Europe-bound fleet encountered a storm in September, leaving her disabled and navigating under makeshift sails amid disagreement among its pilots about their location. Weeks later, she grounded on a reef in an area now named the Silver Shoals, just to the east of another shoal known as the Abrojos, which the pilots were trying to avoid. After another storm hit the wrecked ship and the admiral and officers left in the ship's only longboat, the remaining crew resorted to building rafts from the ship's timbers. Survivors' accounts pointed to drowning, starvation and even sharks for the loss of around 300 casualties. In the fallout that ensued, none of the survivors could report the wreck's location with accuracy, so it sat undisturbed until New England's William Phipps found it in 1687 and brought home tons of silver and some gold, to the delight of his English backers.
The Concepción was found again in 1978 by Burt Webber, Jr., whose divers recovered some 60,000 silver cobs, mostly Mexican 8 and 4 reales but also some Potosi and rare Colombian cobs (including more from the Cartagena mint than had been found on any other shipwreck).
BTW, if you want one of these, Sedwick is selling a bunch of lesser quality ones (like this) for CHEEEEEEAP on eBay. Run, they won’t be available very long.
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Ptolemy tetradrachm found on shipwreck off Ashkelon
Underwater surveys at Ashkelon during 1998 exposed a Hellenistic/Roman shipwreck. The ship, c.15–25m long, sank in the 1st or 2nd century BC, and its remains include iron anchors, lead sheathing, copper nails, assorted metal artefacts, and shipwright's unused nails. Bronze vessels found—oil-lamp, shovel and ladles—could have functioned in cult rites. Weights and balance-scale parts demonstrate commercial activity. Fishing-net sinkers indicate involvement in fishing. This paper raises important points regarding the risk to shipwrecks on the Israeli coast from environmental and human interference, and suggests that Ashkelon never had a built-up port. [International Journal of Nautical Archaeology - A Hellenistic/Early Roman Shipwreck Assemblage off Ashkelon, Israel; Volume 39, Issue1, March 2010, Pages 125-145]
That’s genuinely incredible @atom , I would certainly try to get something like that, I didn’t even know something like this existed as a shipwreck artifact. I guess I assumed that after a few thousand years nothing would exist anymore.
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The Sri Lanka Great Basses Mughal India Aurangzeb shipwreck treasure
This 1961 find was the basis for Arthur C. Clarke's 1964 book The Treasure of the Great Reef.
A large number of Mughal silver rupees were found near Sri Lanka (Ceylon) in 1961 by underwater treasure hunters.
One of the group was the science-fiction author Arthur C. Clarke who lived in Sri Lanka at the time and would sometimes dive with the two finders. He wrote a book about the adventure titled The Treasure of the Great Reef which was published in 1964.
American divers were diving near the Great Basses reef southeast of Sri Lanka in March of 1961 and discovered the wreck, cannons, and thousands of silver rupees, some loose and some in clumps of coins fused together.
Because of the local ocean currents and weather, divers could only dive to the Great Basses reef during one month of the year. The divers and Clarke returned to the wreck in 1963 and brought up more items.
The ship was later identified as a trading ship belonging to the Emperor Aurangzeb which was sunk around AD 1703. Aurangzeb was the last great Mughal emperor of India who ruled from AH 1068 to 1118 (AD 1658 to AD 1707). The ship was not a British East India Company or Dutch trading ship.
The rupees were fresh from the Surat mint and all were dated with the Moslem year AH 1113 (AD 1701/1702). All of the writing on the coins was in Persian, the language of the Mughals, using modified Arabic script. The coins also had the regnal year (the year of Aurangzeb's reign) of 45 or 46.
The rupees in the clumps were mostly not exposed to sea water and kept their original weights of around 11.4 grams and as the clumps contained around 1000 coins the clumps weighed 11.4 kilograms or 25 pounds.
Clarke sent one clump to the US Smithsonian Museum and the other clumps were distributed to other places. One clump was used as a prop on the television series Pawn Stars episode "Shocking Chum".
"The Taj Mahal Sunken Treasure" name was added later in an effort to sell some of the rupees to the public
In March 2021 I acquired a copy of Arthur Clarke's book and read it.
I had to have one of the Clarke treasure rupees.
On April 1, 2024 I purchased one which had been marketed by "The Taj Mahal Sunken Treasure". This coin came with certificates of authenticity and a DVD with some short films including interviews with Arthur C. Clarke and the treasure finders.
Mughal Rupee, Aurangzeb, Surat, AH 1113 (AD 1701/1702) Regnal Year 46
Silver, 24 mm, 10.14 gm
Obverse: Three horizontal lines of text
Line 1: Shah Aurangzeb Alamgir (King, Ornament of the Throne, Conqueror of the World)
Line 2: Sikkah Munir Badr Cho Zad (Coin struck like shining full moon)
Line 3: Dar Jahan (In the world)
The AH (Islamic) year "1113" is on the obverse top.
Reverse: Three horizontal lines of text
Line 1: Manus Maimanat (Associated tranquil prosperity)
Line 2: Sanat 46 Julus (Year 46 of his reign)
Line 3: Zarb Surat (Struck Surat)
(Struck Surat in year 46 of his reign associated with tranquil prosperity)
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The 1715 fleet, a treasure flotilla on it way pack to Spain from the new world. This fleet was carrying treasure (Silver, gold, and gems) from the new world to help pay of Spain's debts after years of war. Unfortunately for Spain, this fleet never made it back home as it was caught in a storm and sank of the coast of Florida. Much of the treasure was recovered by the Spanish but much of it was also looted by pirates who caught wind of the disaster.
This coin is my collection is one of the original pieces of 8 from the 1715 fleet wrecks.
My story is the short version but I recommend checking out the 1715 fleet society website which I used as a reference.
El Cazador: The Lost Ship of Silver
In 1784, the Spanish brig El Cazador—“The Hunter”—set sail for New Orleans carrying a treasure that could have saved an entire colony. Spanish Louisiana was in financial crisis: its paper currency had little value because it wasn’t backed by silver or gold. To stabilize the economy, King Carlos III of Spain dispatched a shipment of hard currency in the form of silver coins.
El Cazador stopped at Veracruz, Mexico, where it was loaded with roughly 450,000 silver reales—mostly “Pieces of Eight”—weighing an astonishing 37,500 pounds in total. Commanded by Captain Gabriel de Campos y Pineda, a trusted officer of the crown, the ship departed on January 11, 1784. It never reached its destination. Despite Spanish search efforts, El Cazador disappeared, and by June it was officially presumed lost.
For over two centuries, the fate of the ship—and its cargo of silver—remained a mystery. That changed on August 2, 1993, when the trawler Mistake, fishing fifty miles south of New Orleans, snagged an underwater obstruction. What the crew hauled aboard was astonishing: thousands of silver coins minted in Mexico, dated from 1775 to 1783, still gleaming after more than 200 years underwater.
The recovered treasure was initially secured in a bank vault in Grand Bay, Alabama. In 2005, Jonathan Lerner of Scarsdale Coin appraised the haul, which eventually led to the Franklin Mint acquiring roughly 360,000 coins in 2007 for distribution to collectors. From a desperate mission to save a colony’s economy to a spectacular underwater discovery centuries later, El Cazador remains one of the most captivating stories in numismatic and maritime history.
The 1781–1783 Mexico Mo FF 8 Reales
Among the coins recovered, the 1781–1783 Mexico Mo FF 8 Reales stand out as particularly significant. These silver “Pieces of Eight,” minted under King Charles III, often come from the famous 1784 El Cazador shipwreck. They bear the bust of Charles III on the obverse, while the reverse shows crowned arms flanked by pillars. The “Mo” mint mark indicates Mexico City, and the assayer initials “FF” refer to Francisco Antonio de la Fuente and Francisco de Paula.
This coin is from my collection. It shows mild surface disturbance from saltwater exposure, yet still retains a satiny luster, giving it an above-average eye appeal. Not bad for a recovery specimen.
Key Details of 1781–1783 Mo FF 8 Reales (KM 106.2):