Shipwreck Coins
A good friend of mine in FL was offered two clumps of coral encrusted coins being touted at Shipwreck Coins. I was very intrigued to see them as I do not have any true Shipwreck Coins in my collection. Here are the initial photos of the obverse and reverse he sent me:
From the photos and a description of the coins that he gave me, we were able to conclude that these were two clumps of coral encrusted 8 Reales. For those of you that don’t know about the growth rate of coral, it is VERY SLOW. That means that these coins were not simply stuck together and placed in saltwater for a couple of weeks. The coral encrustations on these coins would have taken years and years to form.
After they were sent to me I immediately wanted to know more about these 8 Reales? Could the coins have been from a famous shipwreck like the El Cazador in 1784? Could they have been Pirate Treasure since Pirates roamed the sea’s during the time the 8 Reales were minted? Well, it was hard to tell. On 8 Reales, the date is on the obverse (front) of the coin. The problem with these two clumps was that each of the four exposed sides showed the reverse. The obverse of the coins were cemented into the center of the clumps thereby encapsulating their dates.
To solve this mystery, and since I had two clumps, I decided to break apart one of the clumps to expose the coins. There was no clear-cut way to do this as many of the treasure hunting companies and silver coin conservation companies keep their methods held close. With that being said, I decided to use some of the techniques I am familiar with. Note: there are several types of acid that could eat this coral off and not severely damage the silver coins but I would prefer to not deal with acids. Too dangerous if not done properly!
- I took one of the clumps of coins and let it soak in distilled water for a couple hours. That gave the water time to soak into any matter that it could in and around the clumps. I placed the container with distilled water into the freezer for 24 hours. The thought behind this was that water expands as it freezes and that might knock loose some of the particles. After 24 hours, I ran cold water over the ice to expose the coins and noticed that a lot of particulate matter had simply fallen off the coin. The coins were then patted dry with a soft towel and then placed in a Ziplock bag with a couple desiccant packs to try to remove any additional moisture. They were left in there for 24 hours.
- I then took the clump and soaked it in 100% pure acetone for 24 hours. Acetone will eat away an organic compounds on coins and I wanted to see if it would help.
- After removing the coins from the acetone and letting them air dry for about 15 minutes I was able to tell that they had loosened somewhat from each other. I very carefully used a chisel to break free the coral on the edge of the coins. Once that was done, I used a flat piece of metal and was able to gently pry the coins apart. They actually came apart very easily!
- Once apart, I was still not able to tell what the dates were. In fact, they all looked like the obverses had been eaten away by a couple hundred years under the ocean. I figured I could not damage the coins anymore than they already were so I proceeded to use a small chisel, a wire brush, and a brillo pad coated in Awesome Oxygen. NOTE: Never do any of this to coins that may have any value. You should never clean any coins with value. I was willing to loose all the value of these coins to unlock the history.
Here is what I ended up with:
Now there are still a lot of fine touches to remove the rest of the growth on these coins but I was able to expose most of the detail on the coins including the dates. I ended up with a 1795 and two 1805 8 Reales. Based on the dates that automatically makes these not possible El Cazador coins. At the day, I have no idea what shipwreck these coins could have come from. Was it a pirate ship, a military vessel, a trading vessel, etc.? I may never know!
