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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;lordmarcovan, post: 26057684, member: 10461&quot;]I went with this for my piece of shipwreck gold.&nbsp; It was not cheap, but I won it at auction for a fraction of what an <i>SS Central America</i> gold piece would have cost.</p><p><br /></p><p>Copying and pasting my earlier <a href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/an-australian-gold-sovereign-from-the-1882-rms-douro-shipwreck.413735/" class="internalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.cointalk.com/threads/an-australian-gold-sovereign-from-the-1882-rms-douro-shipwreck.413735/">thread</a>:</p><p><br /></p><blockquote><p><b>An Australian gold sovereign from the 1882 <i>RMS Douro</i> shipwreck</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p>This recent <a href="https://coins.ha.com/itm/australia/australia-victoria-gold-shield-sovereign-1877-s-ms62-pcgs-/a/3118-30083.s" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://coins.ha.com/itm/australia/australia-victoria-gold-shield-sovereign-1877-s-ms62-pcgs-/a/3118-30083.s" rel="nofollow">purchase</a> is my first Young Head Victoria sovereign and also my first Shield type sovereign. It also fulfills another item I’ve been wanting: a piece of gold with a shipwreck pedigree. The nice thing about gold is that it can survive seawater immersion for centuries without corrosion, so this coin has a straight Mint State grade with no “shipwreck effect” qualifiers.</p><p><br /></p><p>The coin was struck at the Sydney mint in 1877 and was part of the cargo of the British <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Douro" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Douro" rel="nofollow">Royal Mail steamship <i>Douro</i></a>, which sank in a nighttime collision with the Spanish ship <i>Yrurac Bat</i> off Cape Finisterre near the Spanish and Portuguese coast, on the evening of April 1, 1882.</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><blockquote><p>All of <i>Duoro</i>’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 <i>Douro</i> in 1,500 feet of water. 53 people aboard the Spanish ship also perished when it too sank.</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><blockquote><p>The wreck was found in 1993 and salvage operations were completed by 1996. There were some 28,000 gold coins brought up from the <i>Douro</i> wreck. Most were gold sovereigns, but there were also some rare Brazilian and Portuguese coins.</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><blockquote><p>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 the auction.</p></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/img_9092-jpeg.1634558/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="https://www.pcgs.com/cert/49106726" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://www.pcgs.com/cert/49106726" rel="nofollow">https://www.pcgs.com/cert/49106726</a></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/img_9080-jpeg.1634559/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/img_9094-jpeg.1634560/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="https://www.cointalk.com/attachments/img_9095-jpeg.1634561/" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" />[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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