1869 Victoria Gold Sovereign 'Douro Shipwreck'

The 1869 Victoria gold Sovereign features the second young head of Victoria facing left on the obverse, with the initials "W.W." incuse on the truncation, representing the engraver William Wyon. The obverse legend reads "VICTORIA DEI GRATIA" (Victoria by the Grace of God), with the date 1869 below the portrait.

The reverse displays a crowned quartered shield of arms surrounded by a laurel wreath, with die number 25 below. The reverse legend states "BRITANNIARUM REGINA FID: DEF:" (Queen of the Britains, Defender of the Faith).

This particular specimen has been graded by NGC as AU Details, with notes of cleaning and its provenance from the Douro Cargo shipwreck. The NGC certification number is 6946764-001.

The total mintage for the calendar year 1869 was 6,441,322 pieces.

The coin's historical significance is enhanced by its connection to the Douro shipwreck. 

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 marketplace in the succeeding decade by private treaty.

This coin seems to be one of the greater proportion of coins that came up privately for sale after the 1996 Spink auction