My Official 2023 Secret Santa Report

Front and center today is my #silvergoldstackers participation #secretsanta results! My role as the enigmatic red, white and black Christmas figure wasn’t exactly secret, so I didn’t bother trying. I’d rather gift consistent my usual black, red and maybe white alter ego. "Let's go, Yo ho ho!"

“Black birds tend to like shiny things.” ~ The Bloody Raven.

The unboxing begins as I slash open the unassuming manila envelope, opening and first removing the envelope addressing to my alter ego’s preferred terms of endearment. The embellishment does evidently infer a familiarity of my own hand writing, my style that would oft reveal the identity of my authorship.

I will refrain from revealing the message for a little dramatic suspense by first revealing the gifts from our sender. After all, we Neo Victorian Pirates are civilized at least until after 7 pm tea when we go about prattling in our pirate business.

And without further ado, the first delightful shiny is the very familiar Silver Shield’s peachy pirate Pieces of eight silver round fashioned by the Golden State mint. As memory serves me correct that this was among the new Silver Shield product line following the business debacle with the Mulligan Mint six years ago. Chris Duane esq., started afresh with the Golden State Mint. Since then this round has remained quite popular and continues to be available to demand.

Typical of Mr. Duane is his story behind the symbols used in this silver round. It is a lot more than a mere cobbling together a few pirate iconography and pop culture symbols. That story begins with the Latin title, “PRAEDATUM IN MUNDO” translating to “A Predatory World.” And then lays out a dark history of the Western countries preying upon indigenous peoples and their wealth in the Product Details.

A prominent symbol are the eight swords behind the Pirate skull each representing the 8 great colonial powers that dominated the world; Spain, England, France, Portugal, Denmark, Netherlands, United States, and Belgium ☠️ Then he goes on to say the following,

"And no matter how powerful any one nation or empire is, on the open sea they were all subject to yet another predatory power, the Pirate. Despite the very bad reputation of the pirates, they actually had a very egalitarian code among them. It gives us a strong example of a true democracy that would put modern American democracy to shame. Pirates not only directly voted for their captain, but they also had the power to depose their captain at any time. Pirates also had a worker’s comp program that stated that if any pirate should become a cripple or lose a limb in service that they would receive 800 Pieces of Eight from the common stock..." ~ Chris Duane.

Our second delightful shiny gift is not one but a trio of fractional coins of the East India Company, three 2021 St Helena Ten Pence to be precise. .
St Helena is a remote island located in the South Atlantic between Africa and South America, serving as a vital waypoint and station for ships journeying around the Cape to and from the East Indies.

Truth be told, I missed the opportunity to acquire the 2018- 2019 1 Pound Spade Guinea 1 oz. So getting these unexpected 10 Pence versions do go a long way to make over that lost opportunity. One key difference missing is the marvelous security holographic styled background present on the 1 Pound version coin.

And there we have it.
Two fine gifts that have with a common ground, set in history’s panorama in the age of sail. Secret Santa must be well acquainted history and my stacking taste. Thank you my Secret Santa, I hope the Tea wasn’t too cool nor the shortbread hint of staleness when you dropped by.

Otherwise, your gift choice has been absolutely smashing!

Thank you for joining me on my blog today.

Wishing you all a Happy and Prosperous New Year

The #piratesunday tag is the scurvy scheme of Captain @stokjockey for #silvergoldstackers pirates to proudly showcase their shiny booty and plunder for all to see. Landlubbers arrrh… welcomed to participate and be a Pirate at heart so open yer treasure chests an’ show us what booty yea got!

12 Days of Christmas Wish List posts;

Day 1; 2013 $50 Canada HMS Shannon & The USS Chesapeake
Day 2; 2017 2 oz.Davy Jones Locker silver round, Privateer Series.
Day 3; 2013 $1 Tuvalu The Dementer, Famous Ships that never sailed series.
Day 4; 2015 Finding Silverbug Island Community Round.
Day 5, St. Bee’s Silver Throwing Star.
Day 6, 2022 $5 Niue Grand Shipwrecks of the World; San Jose.

12 Days of Christmas Wish List posts fulfilled!

A Gift from my Mentor; Gold Spartan’s Silver Pirate ship V2.

References;

Numista; Silver Shield’s; Pieces of Eight.
Numista; St. Helena 1 Pound Guinea Shield.
The East India Company Shop.

My own pictures shot with aging Samsung SM-A530W
P. Image under Pixabay
W. Wiki Commons
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