Victoria 1872 Sovereign, RMS Douro, AU55 with Douro label

Victoria (1837-1901), gold Sovereign, 1872, third young filleted head left, legend and toothed border surrounding, VICTORIA D: G: BRITANNIAR: REG: F: D:, rev. St George and dragon right, long tail to horse, date in exergue, small B.P initials to upper right (Bentley 307; Hill 85; Bull EGC 1202; S.3856A). Toned, with some surface marks, has been slabbed and graded by NGC as AU55 with R.M.S. Douro Shipwreck label.

NGC certification 4472337-222 with RMS Douro label.

Calendar year mintage not separated from the much more plentiful shield reverse type, grand total = 13,486,708.

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

This coin likely comes from the RMS Douro coins that came to market after the auction of November 1996.

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.