While gold Royals clearly rule the top of the pile, this coin is the ultimate silver coin from the 1715 Fleet, the auction house said. The sharply tidy design of these 1714 Royals is clearly the beginning of a new style that continued into 1715 and cannot be confused with any prior dates (despite some overdate rumors stemming from some minor die-chips around the 4 on the obverse die). “Fortunately, the shipwreck provenance did not result in much corrosive loss on the surface of the present piece, although the reverse is a bit more darkly toned, and the entire shape of the coin is intact and fully detailed, including the rims (not to mention it has no hole or plug like most Royals),” according to the auction house. That pseudo-Royal sold as lot 5336 in Bowers & Ruddy’s February 1977 auction.Ĭuriously, all the five known examples (including the pseudo-Royal) are struck from the same obverse die married with three different reverse dies (two with upright flower at top in reverse legend and one with the flower in an X-shaped orientation), according to the auction house. One of four fully round examples known, the coin is the only known Royal 8-real cob recovered from the 1715 Plate Fleet, as opposed to a “pseudo-Royal” on a nonround planchet struck with Royal dies. Graded About Uncirculated details, environmental damage by Numismatic Guaranty Corp., the coin sold for $46,500, including the 20 percent buyer’s fee. As Sotheby’s specialist Alexander Eblen tells Artnet’s Vittoria Benzine, “Emerald deposits have naturally evolved over the course of centuries, so to have one dating back to the 17th century, or defined as ‘old mine,’ is exceptionally rare to come by.One of the shipwreck coin highlights is the 1714-J Royal silver 8-real cob from Mexico City. The emerald originally came from Colombia. Mitzi visited Ukraine over the summer, and the trip compelled her to part with her “most precious possession,” she adds. Now, Mitzi is bringing the emerald to auction in order to support humanitarian efforts in Ukraine. “Since he was someone who was entranced with the romance of history, I’m not surprised that he kept the emerald.” “Although Frank donated just about all the coins and other artifacts that he received from the Atocha … he held onto this one piece,” Mitzi says in a statement on her website. He used it to propose to the woman who became his wife, Mitzi Perdue, in 1988. Perdue donated the majority of his share to the Smithsonian Institution and Delaware Technical Community College, but he kept one item-an emerald-which he fashioned into an engagement ring. He received a cut of the Atocha’s treasures, which were worth over $1 billion in total. One of the expedition’s funders was Frank Perdue, the late CEO of Perdue Farms. But after a lengthy legal battle, a United States Supreme Court ruling gave all rights to the treasure hunters in 1982. In addition to 70 pounds of Colombian emeralds, the ship contained 180,000 silver coins, 24 tons of Bolivian silver, 125 gold bars and a collection of Venezuelan pearls.įollowing Fisher’s initial discoveries, the state of Florida laid claim to the treasures. Finally, in 1985, Fisher and his team of treasure hunters uncovered the main hull of the Atocha-and with it, a trove of valuables. In the 1960s, treasure hunter Mel Fisher discovered the Santa Margarita near Florida’s coast. The ships remained underwater near what is now Florida for over 300 years. Another vessel, the Santa Margarita, met the same fate. The Atocha was a vessel commissioned to support Spanish colonization, and it was returning from an expedition in Havana when it ran into the hurricane and sank. Soon, that emerald will be sold at Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels auction, where it is expected to fetch between $50,000 and $70,000. In 1622, a ship called the Nuestra Señora de Atocha sank in a hurricane-with a 6.25-carat emerald, among many other treasures, on board.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |