Victoria 1855 Sovereign, WW incuse, ex Douro Cargo, presentation gift set

Victoria (1837-1901), gold Sovereign, 1855, second larger young filleted head left, W.W. incuse on truncation for engraver William Wyon, date below, Latin legend and toothed border surrounding, VICTORIA DEI GRATIA, rev. crowned quartered shield of arms, laurel wreath surrounding, emblems below, Latin legend and toothed border surrounding, BRITANNIARUM REGINA FID: DEF: (Bentley 72; Hill 38; S.3852C). Toned, some light marks, wear and attrition from being to the bottom of the Bay of Biscay and back as part of the R.M.S. Douro cargo that sunk in 1882, very fine, now encased in a coin capsule within a brass presentation receptacle in miniature replication of the ship's bell, inscribed RMS Douro, with large cardboard presentation box with plastic window over bell, accompanied by CD Rom with the story of the shipwreck, a 37.5cl bottle of Fonseca Port bin 27 and a Royal Mint certification scroll with ribbon, hand numbered as 235 of an edition of 800 and hand signed by the retail sales director Dafydd Jenkins, the outer box lid printed with gold crested logos, an unusual presentation dating to the early 2000s with a shipwreck provenance.

Calendar year mintage 8,448,482.

The Latin legends translates on obverse as "Victoria by the Grace of God," and on the reverse "Queen of the Britons, Defender of the Faith."

The Royal Mail Steamer Douro sank in 1,500 feet of water after colliding with the Spanish steamer Yrurac Bat at 4am on the 2^nd April 1882 in the Bay of Biscay off Cape Finisterre. The Douro built in 1865 was a popular choice of those first class passengers who liked to travel from South America to England via Portugal. The Douro was on the final leg of her journey en route to Southampton when tragedy struck. The Chief Officer had not noticed the light of the approaching Spanish ship until it was too late to take evasive action and the Yrurac Bat struck the Douro hard on the starboard area near the mainmast and rebounded, and as the engines were still running hard, she ploughed forward again striking the Douro a second time in the aft. The Yrurac Bat lost 30 men and all survivors of which the Douro's were mainly the women and the children, were picked up by the ship Hidalgo of Hull and landed at Corunna.

Moving forward 111 years the wreck was at last located in 1993 after marine researcher Nigel Pickford spent ten years researching the Douro, its cargo and whereabouts after being left a cryptic note by his Father dating back to 1949 merely saying "Douro, 1882, £53,000, Bay of Biscay." The Deepsea Worker Salvage team led by Sverker Hallstrom recovered much of the cargo culminating in what was the most valuable coin auction that Spink and Son had ever held as of 1996 with 1,713 lots of coins and artefacts from the ship. Some 28,000 Sovereigns were recovered from the wreck with a proportion appearing in the auction sale, the remainder gradually found their way into the market-place in the succeeding decade by private treaty. The coin offered herewith is one of the actual pieces from this ground-breaking auction sale.