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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Dafydd, post: 26676436, member: 86815&quot;][ATTACH=full]1702170[/ATTACH]</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1702171[/ATTACH]</p><p>Great Britain 1746 LIMA, George II, D. Nono, 1/2 Crown. </p><p>Seaby 3695 A</p><p>VF details. Cleaned.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1702167[/ATTACH]</p><p>KM# 583.2; Sp# 3703; Silver 6.01 g.; George II; XF Toned</p><p>SHILLING LIMA OBVERSE UNDER BUST</p><p><br /></p><p>These two coins are not strictly speaking&nbsp; shipwreck coins but certainly made from silver captured from a Spanish ship that could easily have become a shipwreck!</p><p><br /></p><p>This George II Halfcrown and Shilling represent one of the most audacious naval exploits in British history. In 1744, during the War of Jenkins&#039; Ear, Admiral George Anson returned from his circumnavigation of the globe with a monumental prize: the contents of the Spanish treasure galleon, <i>Nuestra Señora de Covadonga</i>. 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 By the time you read this, my figures will probably be outdated the way the market is fluctuating!</p><p><br /></p><p>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 <b>LIMA</b> 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 &quot;bankrupted&quot; a portion of the Spanish colonial empire to fund the British state.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1702168[/ATTACH] </p><p><b><font size="2">Courtesy Royal Museum Greenwich.</font></b></p><p>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 <i>Centurion</i>, Anson sold the <i>Covadonga</i> 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 &quot;Galleon Trade&quot; 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 &quot; A Voyage Round the World&quot; 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.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1702172[/ATTACH] </p><p><b><font size="2">Lord George Anson (1697-1762)</font></b>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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