The Shipwreck Corner

I have a large ink bottle and ink pot recovered from the SS Republic. The large bottle is a little chipped but the makers name is intact.


There was a large number of ink bottles and pots in the cargo manifest and many were recovered along with the coins we have all seen.
The bottle was manufactured by Joseph Bourne & Son at the Denby Pottery near Derby.
The specific mark "J. Bourne & Son" indicates the bottle was made after 1850, which is when Joseph Bourne took his son into partnership.
The Ink Maker: P. & J. Arnold
P. & J. Arnold of London was one of the most successful ink manufacturers of the Victorian era. Established in 1724, they became a global name by the mid-1800s. They were most famous for their "Writing Fluid," a high-quality iron gall ink that started out blue but turned a permanent, deep black as it dried. By the mid-19th century, they were producing nearly 30 different kinds of ink and exporting them across the British Empire and the United States. The company continued independently until 1942, when their London factories were bombed during the Blitz. The SS Republic was carrying a vast cargo of ink bottles and pots intended to replenish supplies in New Orleans and aid post-Civil War Reconstruction efforts. These bottles were in transit to help meet a rapidly growing demand for literacy and written communication in a recovering South, where education was seen as a vital component of rebuilding the post-war economy.

From the accompanying book I learnt that the recovered collection features more than 175 different bottle types, ranging from small, inexpensive "penny inkwells" such as my example, —designed for affordability and stability to prevent tipping—to more ornate, hand-blown glass bottles meant to be attractive desk displays.

Considering the recovery from a depth of 1700 feet the condition is remarkable.
I'll try and replace the image posted with a better one.

 

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From Chameau
AV Louis d'or 1724-H
La Rochelle Mint

 

I was moving a little off track with the last couple of posts so here is a coin I picked up on my recent trip to Florida.



I can't do better than this write up by @willieboyd2 and I urge you to visit it.

https://www.cointalk.com/threads/a-guy-named-joe.370460/#post-5143203

The story can be amplified by this book that I picked up a couple of years before the coin.



Clive's reputation did not survive in fact During the 1770s, Thomas Paine used Clive as a symbol of British tyranny and corruption. For the American colonists, the East India Company’s actions in India served as a "cautionary tale" of what happens when a distant government allows corporate interests to rule without restraint. William Dalrymple reframed Clive as an "unstable sociopath" who managed a dangerously unregulated private company. The focus has shifted from his military "genius" at the Battle of Plassey (1757) to the fact that the victory was largely secured through bribery and political treachery.
About 20 years ago I read a biography on Clive by Robert Harvey titled "Clive- The Life and Death of a British Emperor".
Having been taught at School that Clive saved the British Indian Empire from the French and was a hero albeit somewhat flawed, the biography was an eye opener for me as Harvey painted the picture of corrupt, hypocritical, greedy, ruthless sociopath.
So why did I want this coin? Simple, a pedigree to a (in)famous owner, a controversial salvage challenged through the International Courts, and I find it an attractive coin and it fits in with my New World colonial shipwreck collection.
I did a trade on 30 Morgan dollars that I had acquired over the years at probably todays melt value. I was pleased with the deal as this coin holds more interest to me than a pocket full of Morgan Dollars.
Here is an image of the previous owner!

 

Another fabulous coin @panzerman . For those that don't know. In 1725, the French naval vessel Le Chameau struck a reef near Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, during a fierce storm. Carrying a fortune in gold and silver for the colonies of New France, it sank with all 316 souls aboard. The treasure remained lost until its spectacular discovery in 1965.

 

I wrote about the Hollandia on the second page of this post. There is a lot of information available on this shipwreck and it was carefully salvaged by marine archaeologists. Here is another coin and this one is a 4 Real Pillar dollar which is less encountered than the 8 reales.



The 1740 4 reales "Pillar Dollar" is properly known as a Columnario. While the 8 reales is the most famous "Piece of Eight," the 4 reales is sometimes called a "Piece of Four"
Here is the breakdown of its specifications, design, and history:

Key Specifications (KM# 94)
Mint: Mexico City (identified by the Mo mint mark).
Assayer: MF (Manuel de Leon and Francisco de la Pena).
Composition: .917 Fine Silver.
Weight: Approximately 13.54g.
Diameter: Roughly 32–33mm.
To be topical, the current melt value is around $45.00 so thankfully only lunatics would melt these as the numismatic value is far greater.

 

I guess this is a private minting aimed at a wide audience.



I was fortunate enough to be able to buy this last year at below melt value and before silver took off. I made an offer which was accepted as it had been on an Ebayer's site for some time and I guess the cracked plastic put people off. The coin has a piece of placer gold added so I guess this had to be done by hand as all would be different.
I like the Global Certification offerings there is no pretence that they are a third party grader and simply put interesting things together.
I have not been able to find the exact same set on the Internet , similar but not identical. Most are stated as 1/4 ounce coins and this one is a 1 ounce coin. I was lucky enough to meet Bob Evans at the 1715 Fleet Society convention earlier this month and showed him an image and he couldn't recall the same set either but was going to speak to the people he knew who were involved with Global.
Bob spoke twice on the last day of the convention about SS Central America minor recoveries on the two salvage expeditions. His lectures were fascinating.

The 1715 Fleet Society is a great resource for not only studying 1715 Fleet coins and artefacts but much more. Here is a link to a Central America page. There is a lot to discover on their website, it is eclectic and well put together.

https://1715fleetsociety.com/artifa...p-of-gold-the-s-s-central-america-on-display/

 

This is something I picked up last December from A Karanitsos auction house in Greece. It is a medal awarded for bravery to the rescuers of survivors from the SS Metis which sank in 1872.
The communications were flawless and the medal arrived within four days of payment with a great customs declaration "collectors medal little value".
This is the auction description. The Indian Head is to illustrate the size of this chunky piece of metal.
USA: Commemorative medal (Bronze, 65mm, 134.3gr, 12h) for Metis Shipwreck 31.8.1872. Obv: Lifesaving scene. Rev: Legend in oak wreath. Engraved by W&C barber. About Uncirculated.




I know that it is 99% likely to be a restrike as it is unawarded. Here are some notes from Numista.
The New York-built screw steamer METIS of the New York and Providence Line was in collision with the schooner NETTIE CUSHING off Stonington on the night of August 30, 1872 during a heavy gale and drenching rain. It was first thought that the steamer was not much damaged and she spent some time looking for the schooner. However, it was later discovered that she was leaking badly and although headed shoreward, she never made it and sank amid great confusion, mishandling of lifeboats and other mismanagement. Fortunately, the hurricane deck of the steamer floated off and served as a life raft. Captain J.S. Crandall of the Watch Hill, R.I., Lifesaving Station sent out a lifeboat and rescued 17 persons from the water. His fishing boat was also sent out and rescued others. Meanwhile the shore near Watch Hill was strewn with wreckage of the steamer and those who were able to float themselves in on boxes and other wooden part of the ship. There was heavy loss of life, however.
Here is the page citation : https://numista.com/207111

I searched the term "Ship" in Numista and came up with 6906 entries so I have a few to go and somewhat of a challenge on my hands.

 

Great Britain 1746 LIMA, George II, D. Nono, 1/2 Crown.
Seaby 3695 A
VF details. Cleaned.


KM# 583.2; Sp# 3703; Silver 6.01 g.; George II; XF Toned
SHILLING LIMA OBVERSE UNDER BUST

These two coins are not strictly speaking shipwreck coins but certainly made from silver captured from a Spanish ship that could easily have become a shipwreck!

This George II Halfcrown and Shilling represent one of the most audacious naval exploits in British history. In 1744, during the War of Jenkins' Ear, Admiral George Anson returned from his circumnavigation of the globe with a monumental prize: the contents of the Spanish treasure galleon, Nuestra Señora de Covadonga. The sheer scale of the captured bullion—estimated at roughly £500,000—was so immense it required thirty-two wagons to transport it to the Tower of London. To put this into modern context, £500,000 in 1745 would be the equivalent of $143 million or £103 million purchasing power today but in actual fact at the time it represented nationally more than 10% of all taxes collected that year so was actually state altering, representing in GDP around $21.8 billion or £16 billion Sterling. For fun, as it is currently topical, I worked out the melt value at today’s date of the 34.5 tonnes of silver Anson captured. It is approximately 87 million dollars or 64 million pounds sterling. Alongside the bullion and plate there were 1.3 million 8 real coins! By the time you read this, my figures will probably be outdated the way the market is fluctuating!

To humiliate the Spanish and celebrate this financial triumph, the Royal Mint was authorised to strike coins from the seized silver, specifically hallmarked with the word LIMA under the King’s bust. This served as a potent piece of eighteenth-century propaganda, advertising British maritime supremacy to every citizen who handled the currency. In effect this one capture effectively bankrupted was a public demonstration that the Royal Navy had effectively "bankrupted" a portion of the Spanish colonial empire to fund the British state.

Courtesy Royal Museum Greenwich.
It’s a common misconception that Anson sailed the Covadonga back as a prize. In fact, after successfully transferring the 1,313,843 pieces of eight and the massive quantity of silver bullion to the Centurion, Anson sold the Covadonga to a group of Portuguese merchants in Macau. It was sold for the modest sum of $6,000. While the ship stayed in Asia, Anson brought back something arguably more valuable than the silver: Spanish Secret Charts or Rutters. These captured documents detailed the "Galleon Trade" routes and Pacific islands previously unknown to the British. These maps were so strategically sensitive that they were immediately seized by the Admiralty and used to help establish British dominance in the Pacific for the next century. Anson wrote a best seller titled " A Voyage Round the World" about his voyage. It was partly a huge success, as for the first time, the British public could see a map showing the “Spanish Lake” or as we know it the Pacific. The maps and charts were the foundation for British Naval Supremacy for many years to come.

Lord George Anson (1697-1762)

 

Beautiful half crown and shilling! I have a LIMA shilling:

GREAT BRITAIN, King George II (1727-1760)
AR Shilling (26.08mm, 6.00g, 6h)
Dated 1745. Tower of London mint
Obverse: GEORGIUS · II · DEI · GRATIA ·, laureate, draped, and cuirassed old bust of King George II left; LIMA below
Reverse: ·M·B·F·ET H·REX· F·D·B ET·L·D·S·R·I A·T·ET·E· 17-45 (date), crowned cruciform coats-of-arms of England and France, Scotland, Ireland, and Hanover around rayed central Garter star
References: Numista 13121
Attractive old cabinet toning.
​

@Dafydd I remember reading on this forum that there is an alternate story to these LIMA coins - I'll have to find it later when I have more time.

@lordmarcovan an Anne VIGO coin is pretty high on my wish list.

 

Yes @The Meat man Anne VIGO coin is also on my wish list too. I read somewhere years ago that there was a story about Pirates providing the silver for pardons and they had raided Lima to get it. I can't see any Pirate giving up millions for a pardon and the reason that the British coins had Lima stamped on them was that the Spanish Silver that was seized had been made in Lima. I think there is a bit of cross pollination with VIGO going on here. Your coin photography and presentation is superb and that is a handsome shilling. I like the fact that most of these coins including my own feature some wear as they were obviously in circulation and used with pride but somewhere along the line an owner decided to "salt" their coin away. I often see a blue iridescence toning on these coins and wonder if it was a particular metallurgical aspect of the silver and if later coins minted from this silver that wasn't captured by the British but minted in Spain exhibited the same hues.

 

This was found in urn, Mediterreanan Sea in 1950. Now called "Mare Nostrum" Hoard ex Roma Auction. Probably a Roman wreck.

 

Nice coin @panzerman , great early shipwreck coin. I know that coins were found in a wreck dated 480 BC and a gold scarab in a wreck dated 1300 BC. My earliest is 16th Century.

 

I agree, my ship wrecks in Adriatic, Aegean, Mediterreanean Seas. That "Mare Nostrum" hoard was auctioned off by now defunct Roma Numismatics, I ended up getting three of them. According to Richard Beale the hoard was found in 1954. Thankfully no museum got hold of them, and all found new homes with collectors. I miss Roma, they had great coins. Tkalec/ NFA and Roma were my favs.

 

That's a fine Cob @lordmarcovan.