British Virgin Islands Silver, More Sunken Treasures of the Caribbean
Happy Monday everyone! If there is such a thing... Today I decided to continue on with my treasure hunting series. I've been collecting a series of coins minted in 1985 for the British Virgin Islands that commemorate the sunken treasures of the Caribbean. Over the last year or so I've shared many of the coins, and to be honest I'm just about to the end of the collection.
Today's coin isn't as exciting as gold money chains, but still are priceless treasures of shipwreck recovery. Here is the Perfume Bottle:
About the coin:
From numista.com
While far from being the most exciting coin from the Sunken Ship Treasures of the Caribbean series, it's still a pretty coin. The Perfume Bottle represents what was once a very prized possession back in the time of pirates and Spanish galleons. Perfume was a commodity used mainly by the wealthy, however even the commoners had their own versions for use to cover up body odor. People didn't bathe nearly as often in those days and they most certainly wouldn't have smelled very good...
But this coin shares one of the rarer treasures you can find from old shipwrecks, actual perfume bottles. Many have been found over the years and they are prized treasures among collectors and don't come inexpensive. The coin itself was produced at the Franklin Mint in Wawa, Pennsylvania back when they produced many of the coins for islands around the world. It is composed of sterling silver which was the most common metal they used for some reason, if unfortunately does oxidize more easily than pure silver leaving white spots.
The silver melt value on these is around $27.43, although the collector's premium is higher. I've seen many of these going for more than $40 to $50 as of late.
Many think of the treasures of the Caribbean as only silver and gold. And for the most part, that is what is found as it lasts well over the centuries. Some items found from wrecks over the years:
pinterest.de
Gold money chain from the Atocha wreck
pirategoldcoins.com
Varied treasures found from multiple sites in the Caribbean
The gold money chain seen above is beautiful. And believe it or not similar items have been found along beaches in the past. One lucky finder was a woman walking the beach in the Turks and Caicos to find a small patch of gold sticking through the sand. It turned out to be an intact Spanish gold money chain! Not a bad day at the beach!
Money chains were produced to have links removed to be used as payment for goods. In the early days of the Caribbean coins were very rare so the money chain was invented! Many of these are still buried in the beaches of Florida and other Caribbean islands, and on the sea floor under years of sand deposits after shipwrecks. There is still a lot of treasure to be found!
Now for an interesting perfume bottle ship wreck discovery. Although not found in the Caribbean, it was found off of the reefs of Bermuda, another beautiful place!
Mary Celestia
nationalgeographic.com
Wreckage of the Mary Celestia
The Mary Celestia was a ship being used by the Confederates during the American Civil War as a blockade runner. In other words, it was being used to smuggle goods past a blockage of Union ships preventing goods from reaching southern ports. Unfortunately, it met a gruesome fate striking a reef off of Bermuda in 1864 and sank. Since it's rediscovery it's been a popular dive site as it's very well intact, and one of the most remarkable finds was a bottle of perfume that was still intact and sealed inside of the wreck after more than 150 years.
The intact perfume bottle found in the Mary Celestia
It was decided to attempt to recreate the original fragrance which turned out to be much more difficult than anticipated. The original contained ambergris which is produced by sperm whales. It was used in most fragrances for many years but it now not considered ethical for use. After close to a year they were able to recreate the fragrance as closely as possible and it's now sold out of Bermuda if you want to own some for yourself!
Lina Zeldovich
It may not be the original bottle of perfume, but as close as you can get in today's world!
Treasure hunting is a very fun hobby to take up. There are literally lost treasures everywhere in the world, some lost to shipwrecks and other stashed away by it's owner hoping to return and collect it. But they are still out there just waiting to be found. If you decide to join the fun world of treasure hunting, good research is always where to start. Looking for treasure where none has been lost makes the odds of finding it much smaller. Then again, amateur metal detectorists often come across coin hordes that no one has known about in random fields... So research helps, but a lot of luck helps even more!
That will wrap up my post of the day, I do hope you enjoyed the coin and stories. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments below, and thank you for all of your support. It's greatly appreciated! Have a great week everyone!
References:
Disclaimer
I am not a financial planner and this isn't financial advice. Please always do your own research before investing your money. You worked hard enough to earn it!
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The gold money chain is interesting, my friend!😇
I suppose you can just take one link off if you need to spend some “Money”☺️
I wish I had a few of those right now! lol
I do as well my friend, probably will hold a better value than the crypto market at the moment Lol!!😇
I'm thinking that when the government shut down is over the markets will rally we'll have to wait and see!!
I believe the perfume bottle back then was just to show the owner their status, but now it is the value that is soaring high.
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Myabe in million of years, if the earth crust changed, and all of the sudden the ocean around the carribean become so shallow, than the place might become a short gold mine.
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Perfume wasn't cheap back in those days, that's for sure. And the fancier the bottle the more expensive!
The Caribbean is littered with gold and silver, who knows, in millions of years it may be dry land. And whoever is around might start finding ancient gold and try to figure out who made it!
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What a simple but elegant design. Have you ever read any books by Clive Cussler? He used to write some of the best treasure hunt books! Quite an amazing man in real life too before he passed.
Never read any of his books. Sounds like he was the real deal in life going out treasure hunting! It's addictive!
You totally should! Sahara and Inca Gold are two of my favorites. Cyclops was good too. Actually, any of them are solid.
Bermuda is on my secondary list of travel plans but not to smell like a Sperm whale. The Caribbean hasn't been kind to sailing ships over the years but an attraction to reef divers and treasure seekers. And maybe bring my Metal detector.
!PIMP
I would hope the stuff they created doesn't smell like sperm whale, since that's not an ingredient! lol
Hurricanes in the Caribbean along with reefs have claimed many ships. The easiest way to treasure hunt is along the beaches though, unless you're a licensed diver. Most of the treasure tends to be buried on the seafloor under twenty or thirty feet of sand which makes it hard to find for the recreational diver. But you can always get lucky!
!PIMP
Mary Celestia is a great spot for the divers
Never dove it myself, by the water color it looks fairly deep. Maybe 80 to 100 feet, deeper than I would be comfortable diving these days!
!BBH
!PIZZA
I did not know ambergris is from Sperm Whales
It's from whale poop it forms in the digestive tract.
People have found large chunks on the beach that are very valuable.
Yes it does! From what I recall it's vomited up like a fur ball and people find it on beaches. It's expensive and many treasure hunters comb the beaches in hunt of it!
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Knock knock!
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Only Americans are so barbaric to ban Ambergris hehe it's legal in most places.
I've tried it before, they say it smells different for each person.
I love treasure hunting a lot.
Haven't done much myself besides looking for old mines and trying to find ores and crystals.
I love modern treasure hunts too but you have to be very smart and have lots of time/money.
I wonder if there's enough random metal detectors on here to start a treasure hunting group?
Many places no longer use Ambergris saying it's use is unethical, even in Bermuda! lol
Treasure hunting a awesome, I got hooked living in the Caribbean. I've looked at starting a prospecting/treasure hunting community but there really aren't enough people here who are interested to be honest. And even if you do find some newbies interested it is hard to get them out searching unless they are real self starters and willing to find local groups to help them get their feet wet.
Old mines are great for the tailings pile, I've found several nuggets in those that the original miners managed to miss. I've also found a lot of rattlesnakes around them too! I don't mind them as long as they are a nice distance away from me. It's when you find one a little too close for comfort that's no fun! I've been lucky though, most of the time they just want to get away and avoid people.
Happy hunting out there, there is lots of good stuff to find just laying around in the ground!
!BBH
!PIZZA
That is so true what you say about walking around.
I used to just troll beaches all the time i found fishing gear and once and old ring that looked like a US military ring but a symbol in the middle and no outer markings. [similar ring below, but different. I sold mine]. I bought a big magnet for fishing but i havent used it yet. You give me hope for trolling old mines! So far I've just found some ore w silver veins probably worth a few dollars hehe. I found an old mine, but its very short. They didn't find anything. but ABOVE the mine in the bedrock there is some decent ore, but no gold chunks or anything yet.
You're braver than I am, I usually won't go in old mines because most are inherently unstable. I stick to the outside, it's always safer I find. Plus a lot of old mines here have a lot of vertical shafts you can fall down easily! Tailing piles are my favorite place to search!