Hi! i just won a coin that i've always wanted and i would like to share it and its history Here it is: One of the few Southern African shipwrecks that yielded 16th century Spanish Silver Pieces of Eight was the Portuguese merchantman Santiago that was lost between Mozambique and Madagascar in 1585 while the Spanish empire was at the zenith of its global domination. This relatively obscure wreck sank on a reef at night due to pilot error, following which the captain and crew absconded with the one useable lifeboat, leaving some 400 or more passengers to perish on the wreck. The Santiago was found again and salvaged in the late 1970s by Ernest Erich Klaar and eventually yielded silver cobs of both Spain and Spanish America (particularly the mints of Seville and Mexico). This shipwreck is also numismatically notable as one of only two wrecks (along with the Atocha of 1622) to have produced the extremely rare cobs of the Panama mint.The coin is a 23 gram silver Piece of Eight (Eight Reale) from the Mexico mint from the period of Philip II (1556-1598) Have a guess how much i paid for it
I have no idea what something like that costs but I congratulate you on getting something with such a great history. Thanks for sharing. What a lovely thing!
Well it was a total of R1,1040 = $150 by my spanish books that i recently purchased the value for the F mint is Well over 300 Euros every time i find 1 of these coins the price goes really high but i last second bided that 1 really nice
Can I assume you bought this coin on ebay ? If so, what makes you think it is genuine ? Because I'm sorry to say that I do not. There's not a lot of design left, but what there is does not match genuine examples that I can find in any of my books.
Well i do have a Certificate of Authenticity . Could the certificate be fake? Has anyone come across a fake certificate in any type of coin? Also this coin is not from ebay and the seller's rating is 1451 and its 100% positive so i dont think he'd risk 1 negative feedback over this coin.
The seller is a Coin dealer in Cape town I have seen him in person in Cape town, my mum is really good friends with him and we purchased a Burgers Fine beard Pond of him with no problems
Actually, IMHO the value of a certificate is entirely dependent on the value of the issuer's word. A certificate of authenticity from the government mint that issued a particular item is very meaningful. A certificate of authenticity from SGS - well, you get the idea.
I would agree hontonai. But shipwreck certificates are somewhat notorious. I could print them up all day long at home. The reason I say they are meaningless is that no knowledgeable collector or dealer will accept them as proof that a coin is genuine. Think about it, you have a printed piece of paper and you have a coin - supposedly they go together. But what is to stop an unscrupulous individual from simply selling the genuine the coin and replacing it with a fake. Then selling the coin & certificate to some other unsuspecting collector. So no, I am afraid that the shipwreck certificates are meaningless. As one who used to collect shipwreck coins I can verify that the above scenario is all too easy to pull off. Collector - I know one of the leading experts on cob coinage. If you want his name and address I'd be happy to provide it, you could send him the coin and find out for certain if the coin is genuine or not, but I don't think it is based on the pics provided.
Hi, thanks for the info i get upset when sometimes i find out that one of my coins could be fake.. Could you PLEASE send me that person's details i will take good pics of the coin just after i receive my new camera. Does he slab them or something or does he just authenticates them? i am more than happy to send it to him since i want when i show it to someonei dont want them to saY * how much did you pay for that fake*..couse i do like the coin very much and i am proud of it :goof:
You need to send him the coin, not pictures. If you still want his contact info I'll send it by PM. No he doesn't slab them. His name is Dan Sedwick and he literally wrote the book on cob coinage and is ackowledged as one of if not the leading expert on cobs.
I noticed that Dan Sedwick has a website and he authenticates them so i will send mine to him for inspection. I also called my friend to let him know that i will have it professionally authenticated and he said if something is wrong i can get a refund
Good, it may well be that the person you bought it from has no idea how to even begin to tell if it is a genuine coin - few do.
Collector sure hope it's real , But it seems like GD knows what he's talking about . At least if it is a fake you can get your money back . rzage
