A Silver Coin Called Shipwreck from the British Virgin Islands

Over the last year or so I have been intermittently sharing some coins that were made for the British Virgin Islands in 1985. The were meant to commemorate the sunken treasures of the Caribbean. I've usually tied them to some of my treasure hunting posts, and they are pretty coins. I've always been a big fan of treasure hunting whether it's looking for gold or even diving and exploring. Although I've never found a lost treasure (yet), I still hold out hope!

This coin that I'm sharing today also comes from the British Virgin Islands but is from a set produced in 1992. This one in particular is called the shipwreck, and the reverse of the coin shows exactly that taking place. I have always liked coins with ancient Spanish galleons on them, and that's exactly what this one is. Have a look:

About the coin

numista.com

This beautiful coin was produced by The Franklin Mint in Wawa, Pennsylvania. It's a suburb of Philadelphia in case you were wondering. I bought this one several years ago along with a 1985 which is mainly what I was collecting at the time. But since it commemorated the 500th anniversary of the discovery of the Americas I figured why not? Plus, because it's not in pristine condition I got a really good price! It was produced in sterling silver (92.5%) just like all the silver they used to produce at Franklin. Sadly they haven't been in the silver producing business in years now, which is a shame because they made really nice stuff!

There was an entire series of these, the collection is called: 500th Anniversary of the Discovery of the New World. I don't intent to collect any more of them, but it you're interested you could start your own collection!

Christopher Columbus

Wikipedia, public domain

In August of 1492 Columbus led an expedition westward with three ships: the Santa Maria, the Pinta, and the Niña. He had hoped to reach India and profit from the spice trade which was a huge money maker at the time. On October 12 they spotted land and arrived in the Bahamas. He believed he had arrived in Asia, but had in reality arrived at the islands of the Caribbean.

How did this relate to a shipwreck as found on the coin? Columbus ran the Santa Maria aground in Hispaniola and the ship was damaged beyond repair. The timbers were used to start a settlement called La Navidad and left 39 men behind. When Columbus returned a year later the place was burned to the ground and all of he men were dead. Apparently they fought among themselves and the natives finished them off.

Here's map of Columbus's first voyage

By Keith Pickering - Own work based on content from http://www.gebco.net/, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=17513847

So Columbus is given credit for discovering the Americas. The only problem with the history is that he didn't.

Leif Erikson

history.com

Leif Erikson had arrived in Canada some 500 years earlier. While sailing from Norway to Greenland he was blown off course and arrived in the new world. He took supplies from what they had found as sailed to Greenland. Erikson never returned to the new world but others from Greenland did and settled there. Eventually they were abandoned but it's unknown why.

But even before Erikson, the natives had arrived first. The most common theory is that the crossed a land bridge from Asia to Alaska. However, there is now evidence the Europeans had arrived on the east coast of the US at least 14,000 years ago. It's possible they followed the ice sheets across the ocean or traversed them by foot.

There is speculation that they may have founded the Clovis culture because the weapons the Clovis produced were found all over the southeastern US and none were ever found in Alaska or Asia. I saw a special where they found a rock tool in a Virginia excavation that was originally from France, and was over 14,000 years old. Someone had to carry it from France to Virginia... So while the Asians may have arrived on the west coast of America, Europeans may have been arriving on the east coast. The history books may be changing in the near future. But without a time machine it's impossible to really see what happened all those years ago!

It makes you wonder if there were others that arrived even earlier, but all evidence of those events may be lost to time. Humans have always been great innovators, even more than 15,000 years ago.

But in the end Columbus got the glory, even though he wasn't really the first to arrive! That will wrap up my post for today, I hope you enjoyed it. Please feel free to leave any questions or comments below, and as always thank you for all of your support. I really do appreciated it! Have a great weekend everyone!

References:

https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces133334.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus

https://insider.si.edu/2012/03/ice-age-mariners-from-europe-were-the-first-people-to-reach-north-america/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leif_Erikson

Disclaimer:

All pictures are mine unless otherwise indicated

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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