![]() ![]() What makes the story even more intriguing is that this particular specimen - known as the Walton nickel because it was owned since 1945 by North Carolina collector George O. It’s been speculated that Brown may have struck these himself or hired an insider to do it for him. Samuel Brown, a numismatist and former Mint employee, first revealed the impossibly rare, unofficial, coins in 1920. Only Buffalo nickels were supposed to be minted that year but, somehow, five Liberty designs got through. The coin is the holy grail of numismatic collectors because it was produced in Philadelphia without the consent of the US Mint. On Monday, GreatCollections of Irvine, CA, announced it purchased a 1913 Liberty Head nickel for $4.2 million. The new Buffalo nickel officially replaced the Liberty Head design that had been the standard since 1883. She immediately sank with all her riches.Back in 1913, the US Mint introduced a new design for the 5-cent piece that featured a Native American on the front and a bison on the back. He wrote: “I believe the ship’s side blew out, for she caused a sea that came in our ports. Writing in his log, Wager described an explosion so intense that he could feel the heat from his own ship. But before it could be boarded, something went terribly wrong and the San Jose blew up. Wager’s plan was to seize the San Jose, the largest ship in the fleet. But they were barely 16 miles (25kms) out when they were tracked down by English Commodore Charles Wager, in command of four British ships including HMS Expedition. ![]() The San José’s 600-strong crew knew the voyage would be fraught with danger. But the British weren’t the only ones with their eyes on the galleons.įrequent voyages by Spanish treasure ships had led to a golden age of piracy - with raiders sinking more than 1000 Spanish ships off the coast of Colombia during three centuries of colonial rule. The cargo was destined to help Spain’s King Philip V fund his war against Britain. It was part of a fleet carrying jewels, precious metals and 11 million gold and silver coins from Spain’s South American colonies. THE 64-gun San Jose was sunk off the coast of the Colombian port city of Cartagena in 1708 during 90 minutes of heavy fighting with the British Navy. Several weeks ago, UNESCO, the United Nations cultural agency, called on Colombia not to commercially exploit the wreck, whose exact location remains a state secret. The treasure has been the subject of legal battles between several nations as well as private companies. “The wreck was partially sediment-covered, but with the camera images from the lower altitude missions, we were able to see new details in the wreckage and the resolution was good enough to make out the decorative carving on the cannons,” WHOI engineer and expedition leader Mike Purcell said. The vehicle descended to nine metres above the wreck to take several photographs, including some of the distinctive dolphin engravings on the San Jose’s cannons, a key piece of visual evidence. It was REMUS 6000 that in November 2015 took some side sonar images that found the San Jose. The institute’s autonomous underwater vehicle, REMUS 6000, helped find the wreckage of Air France Flight 447 in 2011, which crashed in 2009 several hundred miles off the coast of Brazil. The location of the San Jose remains a state secret. ![]()
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