SEDWICKCOINS BLOG

Payday by Liliya Skubish, cover for our upcoming Sedwick Treasure Auction #19

We’re busy getting ready for our next auction, which is quite a production! First we collect consignments, then we assign lot numbers to each auction lot, and then we photograph everything. While that’s going on, Dan writes a detailed description about each lot. After layout is complete, catalogs are ordered and voila, the fun really begins.

Book by Dave Horner, 1999

Speaking of consignments, we are very proud and pleased that two important collectors, Tom Gray and Dave Horner, are allowing us to auction all or some parts of their collections for them. The coins from Dave Horner’s collection (Dave is a well-known treasure hunter and writer) include 1715 Fleet gold cobs and shipwreck coins from the San Martin, the Capitana, the Maravillas, and the Jupiter Wreck.

Tom Gray’s collection, which was previously exhibited as “Treasures of the Deep: Galleons, Storms and Archeology,” last year at the American

Tom Gray with his mother, Anne Gray

Numismatic Association’s museum in Colorado Springs, concentrates on shipwreck coins and ingots. As a result, our shipwreck coin section features some shipwrecks that you don’t normally see (and many that you do). There are over 50 shipwrecks represented, from ancient Egyptian galley wrecks to the SS Crescent City which sank off Cork, Ireland in 1871. In between there are 16 lots from the previously mentioned San Martin, which at the time of its salvage, was the earliest documented shipwreck ever salvaged off the east coast of Florida. We have coins from famous shipwrecks like the Vergulde Draeck (which sank in 1656 off Western Australia and whose coins must be accompanied by the original Western Australian Museum certificate) and the Whydah (a true pirate ship which sank in 1717 off Cape Cod and whose coins are almost all housed at the Whydah Pirate Museum in Provincetown, MA). Also extremely rare are coins we will auction from such wrecks as the Aguila Volante, which sank in 1701 off Punta Santa Elena, Ecuador;the Wendela, which sank in 1737 off the Shetland Islands, north of Scotland; the Colossus, which sank in 1798 off the Scilly Isles, southwest of England; and the aforementioned S.S. Crescent City.

So, if you’re a collector of shipwreck coins, this is the auction for you!

Next time, I’ll highlight more tidbits from our auction and we’ll be that much closer to catalog publication and online viewing. Back to work now!

Hot off the press: From the blog at the American Numismatic Society, the Newman Numismatic Portal is now open! This portal, dubbed the NNP, “aims to provide the most comprehensive numismatic resources available on the Internet.”It is funded by Eric P. Newman Numismatic Education Society (EPNNES). As the blog states, “Over 3,000 documents, representing more than 100,000 pages, have been completed to date. The documents represent a mix of auction catalogs, periodicals, reference books, and archival material. Most of this material is unique to the Newman Portal and has not been previously scanned.” It’s well worth your time to wander over to the website and check it out. All of us are indebted to people who have the time and money to enrich our lives and our livelihoods in this way. Pay it forward when you can.