Ancient Coins

The Wreck of the Admiral Gardner

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The Wreck of the Admiral Gardner

January 25, 1809

The 11-year-old Admiral Gardner was an East Indiaman, one of the proud, tall ships that made the regular and perilous journey between England and India during the 18th and 19th centuries. 145 feet in length, she was captained by William John Eastfield, a man who already made the journey many times in the past. He knew the hazards the trip had in store, and as he set sail from Deptford, on the River Thames, that day in 1809, he would already have been studying the latest charts.

Part of his cargo consisted of coins to be used by the British East India Company. The majority on these coins were copper 10 cash that were struck at the Soho mint in Birmingham, England. The copper for these coins came from the Rose Copper Co. in Cornwall. They were selected because their copper deposits contained significant amounts of silver. Consequently, each of the cash coins contains some silver. The arms of the East India Co. are on the obverse, above the date. The reverse bears a mughul inscription and an "X" denoting the denomination of ten cash.

As the ship left the safety of the River Thames and proceeded beyond the Straits of Dover, a very sudden storm developed that pushed the ship on to the Goodwin Sands. These sands were named for the eleventh century earl of Goodwin, whose now-submerged lands the sands once were. When the earl's son, King Harold II, was slain at the Battle of Hastings, the Norman conqueror confiscated his property and it is said that it was the earl himself whose curse caused the waters to slowly encroach over the land, a trap for unwary seaman for all eternity.

Some seaman were rescued as the ship bore the thunderous waves but others, unfortunately, lost their lives.

After a half century, all trace of the ship had been lost and she was just another entry in Lloyd's Register.

Finally in 1985, with modern equipment, the wreck was discovered and some of its treasure, like the 10 cash coins we are offering, were recovered.