HMS Victory wreck found

[chrisild]

"The wreck of a ship which has been found off the Channel Islands has been confirmed as the warship HMS Victory, which sank in 1744." http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/guernsey/7866103.stm

Acording to this article http://www.spiegel.de/wissenschaft/mensch/0,1518,604866,00.html (in German) the ship had £400,000 on board, probably about 100,000 gold coins ...

Christian

[tonyclayton]

It is, of course, NOT the HMS Victory found in Portsmouth, but an earlier version.

I gather the coins are likely to be Portugese.

[chrisild]

It is, of course, NOT the HMS Victory found in Portsmouth, but an earlier version.

Right, this one is on the ground of the sea (exact location is kept secret) whereas Nelson's HMS Victory can be visited much more easily ... This BBC article aimed at young readers http://news.bbc.co.uk/cbbcnews/hi/newsid_7860000/newsid_7865700/7865787.stm and also the Spiegel article do mention that - the author of the other BBC article probably figured that British readers know the difference anyway ...

As for what coins may be on board, the Victory was on its way back from Lisbon, it seems. So yes, may well have been Portuguese coins. Depending on what details about the find Odyssey will provide, we can still move the topic later.

(Edit) Another article, from the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/03/science/03shipwreck.html , also has a link to the preliminary report: http://www.shipwreck.net/pdf/OMEPapers2-HMS_Victory.pdf

Lots of photos in that report ... unfortunately mostly cannons.

Christian

[Figleaf]

And it was found by a controversial US commercial enterprise that has made a name for itself by being defendant in court cases involving the destruction of archeological evidence and the appropriation of sovereign rights. They are already in trouble for how they have treated human remains on HMS Victory. Hopefully, the UK government will have learned and will apply UNESCO's patrimony guidelines.

They also have a history of inflating the value of coins found and hyping the price to the point where collectors won't buy them any more, setting up the disappointment trap for those who do. Already, the BBC reports hundreds of millions worth of gold coins ...

Peter

[BC Numismatics]

There's been a report that there is gold worth around US$1,000,000,000 on board that wreck,which is located somewhere off Alderney.

Imagine if a Nazi U-Boat was found off Alderney,raised,& Nazi German coins were found on board.Yes,Nazi U-Boats have been found in the English Channel.It is possible that some have been raised & scrapped.

Aidan.

[Figleaf]

As Christian said, we know from contemporary newspaper reports that there was £400 000 in gold on board. We don't know how much of that was in coins and how much in gold bars, we don't know how well these coins are preserved, we don't know how much is recoverable, we don't know if they were circulated or freshly struck, we don't even know which type there are.

We certainly don't know what the influence of a large amount of newly found coins will have on the price or what the effect of Odyssey's usual hyperhype will be on the price. All amounts circulated are therefore nothing but uninformed speculation.

Peter