Always been fascinated with Titanic story. Here's some pictures of coin/banknotes recovered from the bottom of the Atlantic. Can anyone ID the coin? Picture 1 source: http://www.seattlepi.com/ae/article...acts-up-for-auction-3462550.php#photo-2001153 Picture 2 source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/pic...-be-auctioned-off-in-one-big-lot.html?image=4
That third note from the left appears to be a series 1902 $10 National Bank note. I wonder which bank issued it.
Interesting artifacts. I looked through all of the photos. I would like to someday own something from Titanic. From a historical significance standpoint, I can't think of too many things greater, in my opinion.
As interesting as they are...I also struggle with it too. In my opinion, the Titanic is a mass grave and a memorial. Part of me feels that retrieving these "artifacts" is a little like grave robbing. They are cool...but I'm not sure if I'd want to own someone's possession that was taken from their final resting place.
I can see how a personal possession gives you that feeling. Especially if it is known who the item belonged to. I believe a member from family lineage (if any) has more rights to owning it than a collector. Outside of that scenario, I wouldn't have a problem owning a Titanic artifact. I would cherish it and do everything I could to preserve it. So in a sense I would be honoring and memorializing the historic event and all those that perished.
I can understand the recovery of a gold coins from the depts, but it's amazing how these (bill's) money survived, when the owners didn't, unless of course this is money from the survivors. My thoughts are that it is "All About Money", a scheme to get a high return for what is imagined to be from deseased passenger's. Dave
Excellent and interesting point. Do artifacts that belonged to passengers that died and were then recovered from the ocean floor have more value than those that came from survivors? In my eyes they do - as morbid as that sounds.
I think it would be impossible to prove the difference since most of the survivors lost all possessions they took on-board with them. There is no way to know who owned what at this point.
Most of the items recovered are of unknown ownership. However, there are some items that are known to belong to certain passengers. For instance, the link in first post shows a couple items (vest and pocket watch) that belonged to a third class passenger by the name of William Henry Allen. Another item (bakers hat) belonged to William E. Hine.
Personally, I would prefer to own actual items that were part of the ship itself or were owned by White Star Line. As opposed to collecting personal items. With that said, I wouldn't mind owning personal items that were on Titanic when it sank either. If you could have one item from Titanic, what would it be? I would take the anchor.
Although I stand by my original belief that I would not want to own any piece of this grave...I do agree with this statement. If I were to own something...I would want something of the ship, not of the passengers. I'd probably want something small...like a tea cup or something.
Buy a piece of coal, it's not very expensive, and also didn't belong to a passenger there's nothing morbid about that. All the artefacts were recovered from bottom of the ocean, not the survivors: "The items were recovered from the shipwreck in expeditions in 1987, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2004. RMS Titanic, which has overseen the artefacts for 18 years, said the public company decided to auction the collection in response to shareholders' wishes that the "company go out and make money.""
No it's not. That 12978 is the notes serial number. The charter number can be seen just below that on the border. It appears to be 4 digits but is too small to read.
Personally, I think this sale is morbidity at its best in pursuit of the Almighty Dollar and under the guise of owning a piece of history.
It almost looks like charter 2691...which is the First National Bank of Salem, Ohio. They did issue 1902 $10 notes it looks like.
How would a person prove that they have purchased an authentic US currency note recovered from the titanic.