Old Sails on Coins

One way to invigorate your collecting is to chase after a topical theme. A popular one for coin collectors is sailing ships. Why? They are beautiful, historical, & plentiful.
   Assembling your fleet takes time and challenges you to decide which ships get added and which ships are passed over. Of course, you could try to collect them all -- more power to you if you go that route. As for me, I am attracted to the Old Sails.

Many ships can be found on Jetons.
These pieces will be profiled on this blog at some later date.

   My fleet includes those ships that were sailing before 1800. They say that Age of Sail began in the 16th Century and ended in the mid-19th Century with advent steam power. Yet, it is hard to draw a definitive line to mark the start or finish.
   Some like to use the battle of Lepanto in 1571 as the beginning. In this battle, galleys fought off the west coast of Greece; it was the last naval engagement wherein all the significant vessels were galleys.
   The closing of the Age of Sail is somewhat clearer, as many historians suggest that the era ended in Hampton Roads, Virginia, when the ironclad CSS Virginia boldly steamed out in the harbor and destroyed the USS Cumberland and USS Congress -- both of them, fully-rigged sailing ships with wooden hulls. Both sail and plank became obsolete on that day in 1862.
   We also have the Golden Age of Sail. This refers to the clipper ships that came afterwards. These were large, fast ships. They sailed well into the 20th century.
 
   But for me and my collecting tastes, I decided to draw the line clearly. So, I chose the year 1800 as the cut-off date. In addition, the coin or token needs to be a from that period. As a necromancer, I want something that was issued when the ship was still afloat. Finally, I decided to choose only those coins that spoke to me -- I would not strive to get them all.

These "ship penny" jetons were produced in Nuremburg
during the late 16th century. They were utilitarian pieces
for use in accounting. As you can see, there were many
varieties. You could spend a few years just collecting these.

   I can image these old ship coins and tokens being given out as tickets, souvenirs, prizes, or gifts. And, of course, some of them were just money. I like to think that it took extra effort to produce a ship coin. As such, they were meant to be marvelous from the start -- designed to draw the eyes to it, and to captivate the owner with images and story-lines about these fantastic vessels. I wonder how many of them became pocket pieces. If I were alive a few centuries ago, I think I would want to possess a ship coin.

   Consider the ship for a moment. Cogs, carracks, galleons ... they were quite innovative. A small medieval cog 80 feet long with a beam of 20 feet could carry many tons of goods. Later war ships such as carracks and galleons were floating forts filled with canons. Can you imagine how much effort it would take to transport all these supplies and guns across land? Hundreds of horses and carts would be needed. What an incredible machine!
   Indeed, sailing ships allowed world exploration, trade, and domination.
   The ship's environment represented a complex set of systems that required a highly trained, and disciplined, crew. It was a city composed of specialized laborers, each with their own job to do. With an experienced captain, the whole enterprise functioned as a single unit.
   Seafaring had its own culture too. Sailors spoke a different language, ate and slept according to a rigid schedule unlike anything found on land. It was a life that was hard on the hands with few comforts. But the ports of call made it exciting.

   Several books have been written about ship coins. The most popular have been the two volumes entitled Watercraft on World Coins by Yossi Dotan and the self-published study entitled Nautical Numismatics by Dr. Lloryel Antoine.
   The Watercraft series catalogs over 2000 ship coins (500+ photos): these are old ships depicted on new coins, usually commemoratives. He does not include coins dated before 1800. I enjoyed these books even though I had chosen to collect coins before 1800, as he provided details about many of the ships -- wonderful stuff! I gleaned some interesting statistics: Did you know that the Santa Maria is the most common ship found on coins? Columbus' ship is followed by the Golden Hind and the Sao Gabriel. Go ahead and look them up!

La Santa Trinidad. Hand colored drawing from 1560.
Public Domain Image.

   The Nautical Numismatics book provides a historical perspective with chapters defined by milestones in sailing history. For example, there are chapters on ships of exploration, warships, and steamships. The author covered many of the ship coins that I am interested in, but NN is not a catalog; instead, it is a discussion of how ship coins evolved over time. His writing tone is conversational and enjoyable reading.
   As I dove into the topic, I discovered that many ships are to be found on jetons and other tokens. Jetons are counting and presentation pieces made primarily in Germany, France, and the Netherlands. They have a rich history, much of which is described by Michael Mitchiner in his voluminous series on Jetons, Metalets, and Tokens. I found many pictures of old sails in his books, many of them dating to the 16th century. The first volume is entitled: The Medieval Period and Nuremberg; and the second volume is entitled: The Low Countries and France. There are two other volumes that I have not seen yet, but they catalog items after 1800. This is a must-see series of books for the ship collector.
   In addition, metals and tokens were also produced in the UK with a number of ships appearing on tradesmen tokens of the late 18th century. The well-known Dalton and Hamer catalog entitled, The Provincial Token-coinage of the 18th Century, covers this collecting field comprehensively with many pictures. In addition to this token reference, there are many other coin books wherein old ships can be found. For example, there is a communion token from Glasgow in Scotland with a sailing ship on it (but it probably dates to the first quarter of the 19th century). Also, several coin weights depict old ships. Finally, there are many books on medals that depict old ships that I have not yet had the chance to review (e.g., Admiral Vernon medals).
   Of course, many seafaring countries produced money depicting old sails, but to my surprise, there were not as many ship coins as I expected. Nonetheless, the massive volumes of Krause's Standard Catalog of World Coins list nearly 100 ships on coins before 1800.
   I hope all this inspires some of you to add some ships to your collection.
   With all this being said, I plan to share my favorite ships on this blog -- some of which I have, some of which I am searching out, and some of which I can only dream about (e.g., Sommers Island shilling and pence). I like old ship coins that were used, spent, handled, and passed around as curiosities, so I do not chase after the shiny ones that were locked away and neglected -- after all, this is a necromancer's blog.