shipwreck and pirate treasure coins

[synch]

Soo is there such a thing & are any of ebay auctions listing as such true & if so how can I tell the real stuff from the fake stuff ?.. Cause honestly I love the idea of owning a coin from pirate or shipwrecked stuff One of the reasons why I like collecting silver coins is cause I figure its about as close as I am ever going to get

 

 

thanks in advance guys

[cpm9ball]

I can't say about pirate treasure, but in 2005 (I think) Odyssey Marine turned over all of the coins from the S.S. Republic (formerly the U.S.S. Tennessee) to NCS for conservation and NGC encapsulated them as "Shipwreck" coins.

 

Chris

[BillJones]

There are such things, and as a group they are not really rare. The hang up is that there are coins I would call "relics" and others I’d call true collectors’ items. “Relics” are pieces that have been damaged by seawater and, from my coin collector’s perspective, don’t amount to much. Yet the prices for some these pieces can be very high. I’ve seen seawater damaged common date 19th century Seated half dollars offered in mahogany boxes for over $3,000. My attitude is they need not try to sell any of those coins to me.

 

Sea salvaged coins can be coin collector worthy if they were pieces that were in the middle of the pile, protected from the seawater and current driven sand. Gold coins have the best chance of survival although a few silver pieces can be okay too. The most famous gold coins are the 1857-S double eagles that were salvaged from the SS Central America.

 

Here is a Spanish "cob" that was salvaged from the wreck of Spanish ship that foundered off the cost of Australia. This is actually fairly decent for one of these crudely made coins. Most of the "cabs" that are available today came from shipwrecks. Most of the pieces that did make it to port were melted.

 

[jtryka]

Pirate treasure is a bit tough, since they didn't really document their voyages, like Spanish galleons or American or British merchant ships, which we know departed a specific port and then were sunk in a storm, or were lost somewhere in between. There are a number of coins you can buy that were more modern wrecks, like the Central America, Brother Jonathan, etc. but there are also many Spanish ships that went down, like the Atocha, which has coins sold from it. I have two shipwreck coins, a Mexican 8-reales from the wreck of the El Cazador wreck, and an 1836 half eagle that was just noted as "sea salvaged" on the ANACS holder, so who knows where that came from, though I doubt it was pirate booty!

[synch]

There are such things, and as a group they are not really rare. The hang up is that there are coins I would call "relics" and others I’d call true collectors’ items. “Relics” are pieces that have been damaged by seawater and, from my coin collector’s perspective, don’t amount to much. Yet the prices for some these pieces can be very high. I’ve seen seawater damaged common date 19th century Seated half dollars offered in mahogany boxes for over $3,000. My attitude is they need not try to sell any of those coins to me.

 

Sea salvaged coins can be coin collector worthy if they were pieces that were in the middle of the pile, protected from the seawater and current driven sand. Gold coins have the best chance of survival although a few silver pieces can be okay too. The most famous gold coins are the 1857-S double eagles that were salvaged from the SS Central America.

 

Here is a Spanish "cob" that was salvaged from the wreck of Spanish ship that foundered off the cost of Australia. This is actually fairly decent for one of these crudely made coins. Most of the "cabs" that are available today came from shipwrecks. Most of the pieces that did make it to port were melted.

 

 

That is awesome I'd love to see other types of stuff if any one has any in collection! How would you suggest I search ebay for this type of stuff & what are ways of telling if its real or not ?.. Any trusted ebay sellers anyone would care to share with me ?.. So far I've only brought coins from my lcs cause I trust him not to rip me off but there is so much about this stuff I don't know about I'm really in over my head

 

 

Pirate treasure is a bit tough, since they didn't really document their voyages, like Spanish galleons or American or British merchant ships, which we know departed a specific port and then were sunk in a storm, or were lost somewhere in between. There are a number of coins you can buy that were more modern wrecks, like the Central America, Brother Jonathan, etc. but there are also many Spanish ships that went down, like the Atocha, which has coins sold from it. I have two shipwreck coins, a Mexican 8-reales from the wreck of the El Cazador wreck, and an 1836 half eagle that was just noted as "sea salvaged" on the ANACS holder, so who knows where that came from, though I doubt it was pirate booty!

 

you make a good point about that ... I guess there is no real way to tell

 

[gpnyc]

My only shipwreck coin and I like to think its collector-worthy

 

1844-C LIBERTY HEAD HALF EAGLE (Variety 1;Salvaged from the SS New York)

Salvaged from the 1846 wreck of a ship working a Southern route from New Orleans to Galveston, Texas, which makes the presence of Southern gold from Charlotte easily understandable. This is a minimally worn example, yellow-gold with a peculiar combination of granularity and radiance.

 

The only example of an 1844-C half eagle recovered from the wreck. This is the plate coin (p.31 and p. 77) in ""The Treasure Ship S.S. New York"" by Q. David Bowers."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[L1ncolnF4n]

I own two shipwreck salvage pieces, an X-cash and (the much more scarce) XX-cash, both copper coins from the shipwreck of the Admiral Gardner in 1809.

 

I paid $20 and $35 for them ages ago, and the current prices seem to be $22 and $35 respectively...didn't even keep up with inflation.