Brazil João V 1750 Peça of 6,400 Reis Rio, ex Clive of India Treasure

Brazil, João V (1706-50), gold Peca of 6,400 Reis, 1750, R mint mark for Rio, laureate head right, R. mint letter over spread date below with "fancy" serifed 1, legend and toothed border surrounding, IOANNES.V. D. G. PORT. ET. ALG. REX., rev. crowned shield of arms within ornate frame, edge engrailed, weight 14.36g (LDMB 0225 Gomes 56.31; Fr.46). With a matt tone from being in saltwater, a few scuffs and a couple of tone scratches in field, otherwise practically extremely fine, intriguing to think the coin has been to the bottom of the sea and back with the shipwreck provenance.

The obverse legend translates as "Joao the Fifth, by the grace of God, King of Portugal and the Algarves"

In 1755 Captain Robert Clive (1725-74), the decorated military hero of the British Navy, decided after a brief stint as a politician, that he was ready for a return to India where he had made his fortune. Packing up by his estimation some £3,000 worth of gold coins in a chest marked "R.C." with his belongings, he and his wife tried to book passage on the ship Dodington where the cargo was accepted. However, a cabin was not available so Clive and his wife booked themselves on to the alternative ship Stretham. "One chest of gold marked R.C." is recorded on the Dodington manifest as weighing 653 ounces and 6 pennyweights and was the only gold recorded as being carried upon this ship and the two ships with several others set sail from England on 22^nd April 1755. The Dodington was the more efficient ship of the group and pulled ahead of the others on the long voyage to India south down the Atlantic and around the Cape of Good Hope into the Indian Ocean, and lost sight of them by the end of May. Unfortunately the Captain of the Dodington following inefficient charts turned from an easterly bearing to a east-north-east too early and ended up on a collision course for rock and reefs of what was then called Chaos Island which is Bird Island today in the Indian Ocean. Stormy weather was encountered further hiding the breakers over the reefs until too late on the 17^th July 1755 when the ship was wrecked within a mile of the shore at Bird Island and smashed to pieces within a twenty minute period. Only 23 of the 270 people on board survived to make the shore. The other ships following on the correct course, were oblivious to the fate of the Dodington and sailed on safely to Bombay, meanwhile the 23 survivors of the wreck made best they could to live on the island using much of the wreckage to shelter and eventually build a small vessel on which they could escape the island. They also managed to recover a "chest of treasure" and also one of "wrought plate" but both of these were not associated with Clive and nor were they gold, and his gold treasure was assumed lost for good. The survivors christened their boat "Happy Deliverance" and by the 20^th April 1756 arrived in Mozambique after nine months of not seeing anybody else. They then sailed on to India successfully where news of their survival and what happened soon made headline news in London. The treasure was not eventually salvaged until the 1990s and the auction at Spink in 2000 contained over 800 Brazilian and Portuguese gold coins recovered from the wreck of the Dodington. South American gold coins minted from the rich bounty of gold deposits there were flowing as coin across to Portugal and then at the rate of as much as two million pounds a year into England from the illicit trade between Lisbon and London as evidenced by contemporary sets of coin weights for weighing gold coins that always had weights for Portuguese coins at this period, and hence why Clive possessed such gold coins for overseas trade. Clive went on to become "Clive of India" as the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency. This coin is one of 65 pieces of this date in the treasure which is the final date of the reign of João V.

Provenance:

Ex The Clive of India Treasure, Spink Coin Auction 143, 28^th September 2000, lot 134 with original lot card and certificate issued by Spink.