Silver from the British Virgin Islands and the San José lost treasure

Happy Friday everyone! I can't believe it's already here, I'm not sure where the week went... Today I decided it was time to finish up a post I have had in limbo for about two weeks. It wasn't that it isn't good, I just didn't have time to search the images and move them over to Hive. Now that I have that done I'm going to dive right in to today's material.

As all of you know I have been slowly sharing a series of silver coins that are from the British Virgin Islands. It is an amazingly beautiful place if you haven't been, definitely worth the trip. The coin today is from the 1985 silver series "Sunken Ship Treasures of the Caribbean". It was made to commemorate all of the lost treasure laden ships that have been lost over the centuries to the depths of the Caribbean sea. Today's coin doesn't have silver or gold on it, or even ship instruments, but rather a porcelain bottle. Have a look:

About the coin:
https://img.inleo.io/DQmUtjAj44BTtWGaUyfAqgeUtpP1NCh63NsNHkyAg97etFH/Screenshot%20(1063).png
From numista.com

First off, not my best photograph of all time. I screwed up the lighting a bit, proof coins can be hard to photograph well. You might be thinking what kind of treasure is a porcelain bottle? Intact shipwreck porcelain is rare and extremely expensive. But back to the coin, it was produced by the Franklin Mint in Wawa, Pennsylvania, US. They used to make some of the finest sterling silver coins and bars throughout the 1970's and 1980's, but sadly no longer produce precious metal items. The 1985 series is one I have been working on for some time, I'm down to one left to collect so my set is almost done! They are great for silver stackers because they aren't too expensive (if you shop around) and for collectors as well since they are a limited set.

What is porcelain?

I'm sure many of you are familiar with it, but for those who aren't it is a very high end ceramic made usually from Kaolin clays and fired at high temperatures resulting a strong white or translucent pottery. It originated in China and then spread to Europe and the rest of the world. It tends to be more expensive and much higher quality than your standard ceramics.

The San José Shipwreck
theolivepress.es

A modern replica similar to the San José

The "Holy Grail" of shipwrecks is the Spanish galleon San José. It was the flagship of a Spanish treasure fleet consisting of three warships and fourteen merchant vessels carrying treasure from Panama to Cartagena, Colombia. It was a three mast ship and heavily armed with 64 cannons on board. On June 8, 1708 they came across a British ship squadron near Baru, an island off of the coast of Colombia. A battle ensued and the San José took a hit to it's black powder room causing the ship to explode and sink to the depths of the sea. Of the crew of 600 only eleven survived the disaster.

The location of the shipwreck was a mystery for over 300 years. As it turns out it sank in deep water, about 2000 feet (600 meters) making it hard to locate. The treasure lost included gold, silver , and emeralds with an estimated worth today of about $17 billion US. The Colombian navy located the wreck in 2015 and has kept the exact location a state secret for obvious reasons. It was discovered using a submersible autonomous vehicle and they have released some of the images of the wreck on the sea floor.

Usually Caribbean shipwrecks happened in shallow water after hitting a reef. Since the water is warm the wood decays and disappears. However at a very cold depth of 2000 feet that doesn't happen and some of the wooden structure is still visible.

strangesounds.org

Among some of the treasures seen on the seabed include many porcelain items including tea cups. Today these would be priceless, and likely sell for hundreds or thousands of dollars a piece.

archaeology-world.com

Other treasure found by the submersible were brass cannons.

qz.com

And last but not least, lots and lots of gold and silver!

sciencenewslab.com

keywestshipwreck.com

As fantastic as this treasure is and it's astounding value the recovery will be very difficult because of the deep water. Humans can't dive that deep except in submarines. The Colombian government plans to recover it and preserve it in a museum as part of the country's heritage. That means there likely won't be much if any of the recovered treasure available to purchase. Unless of course they decide to sell some to cover the cost of recovery which could conceivably happen.

A truly amazing find of priceless treasures!

I love discussing lost treasures like the San José because there is so much lost treasure around the globe. There are still treasure ships that have yet to be found and gold and silver from time to time washes up on beaches around the Caribbean, especially along the Florida treasure coast. Metal detector fanatics find buried hordes of coins in Europe a few times a year. Wherever people have lived for hundreds or thousands of years there will be lost or hidden valuables. There are lost treasures all around the globe that have yet to be found, and I just hope that I'll be lucky enough to find one someday.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed reading my post and I appreciate all of you support. If you have any questions, suggestions, or comments please feel free to leave them below. Thanks again and have a great weekend!

And since I am posting in the #freecompliments community I just wanted to remind everyone to take some time today to be kind. A little kindness can make a huge difference in someone's life. Please check out the community and consider joining us!

And my disclaimer:

Gold and silver collecting and stacking can be a fun hobby but isn't for everyone. You can lose money. I'm not a financial advisor and this isn't financial advice, please always do your own research before spending your hard earned money.

All pictures are mine unless otherwise noted.

References:

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces32496.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_galleon_San_Jos%C3%A9
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcelain

If you are interested in precious metals or even want to learn more about them feel free to come join us #silvergoldstackers

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