Old Sails: French Galleon on Jeton is Guided by the Dophin in 1605

Here we have a ruddy French galleon that is being guided “against all hazards” by a dolphin.

The ship is fully rigged with majestic fore and aft castles. The curvature of the gunwales is amplified with an artistic flair; bold planks and two decks of cannon complement the broadside. The shrouds and stays are nicely detailed. The sails are furled.

The waters appear relatively calm with a few large curls just aft of the vessel. The crowned dolphin leads on the starboard side; its tail gallantly protruding upwards.

French Galleon guided by a Dolphin
It is a hopeful image that a new King will lead to prosperity and peace.

It is a beautiful design despite the rather neglected condition of the piece. This jeton of 1605 was handled for a few decades and then set aside. A deep brown and red patina has engulfed the fields thereby accentuating the ship. A deep old scrape cuts the ship across the fore and main masts.

Despite its injuries, it is a nice piece for the ship collector.

The legend reads: MARIA OMNIA CONTRA. This roughly translates to “Maria (the queen, and second wife of Henry IV) will prosper against all odds or hazards.” Note that Henry of Navarre (also known affectionately as “the good king Henry”) was King from 1589 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the House of Bourbon.

Henry IV married Maria de Medici in October of 1600. She gave him a son (the future Louis XIII) in 1601. As heir to the throne, the future king was known as the Dauphin of France.

Henry IV was brutally assassinated in May of 1610. He was known for being compassionate towards his people, but the fervent Catholics and the Protestants hated him for his stance on religious tolerance.

The dolphin represents the French province of Dauphine and has long been part of the French Arms. Of note, the dolphin also has symbolic significance and represents prudence.

And so, we are left to piece together the message of the jeton. The legend on the obverse helps us here, as it reads: DELPHINO  TVTIOR IBIS. This translates to: “Your path will be more about thanks to the dolphin.”

I believe that the piece is celebrating Maria and her son Louis XIII (the Dauphin) who will eventually lead France towards prosperity.

As always, I welcome any comments/corrections on the translation or its meaning.

Coins (Cobs) from Shipwrecks: A Necromancer's Delight

Big and Bold.
Spanish Colonial cobs are wonderful coins that are
heavy in the hand and rich with history.

Coins from shipwrecks are very popular these days.

They have always been on the Necromancer's List.

Whereas most collectors chase after mint state and high-condition coins, the shipwreck collectors are willing to make trade-offs: provenance is prized at the expense of condition. This phenomenon represents the nexus where necromancers meet set collectors.

It is small patch of common ground. But, it is a place that represents the best that relic collecting has to offer.

The necromancers revel in spirits that are contained (have contaminated) the coin. Like in a conch shell, the sounds of the sea and the ship splintering apart are present.

But even the set collectors cannot escape the kratophany that characterizes a shipwrecked coin. After all, the allure of these relics goes beyond condition grades. Despite best efforts, no amount of rationalization can reduce the mystique of a shipwrecked coin.

Pictured here is an unusual survivor: An 8 Reales from Potosi. It was struck high in the Andes from a mountain of silver (Cerro Rico) in the 1630s. The cob was carried by pack animals to Lima, shipped via galleon to Panama, where it was packed across the isthmus, and loaded on the San Estevan y Los Angeles, a merchant ship.

It is essential that you have a certificate
for a shipwreck cob like this one

On the 11^th of August 1639, the San Estevan was in a convoy comprised of the Armada de la Guardia de la Carreera de Indias. The San Estevan was carrying 324,000 pesos in silver, plus gold ingots. The ship was separated in a storm off Bermuda, so it made its way towards Spain alone.

Captain Juan Ortado de Solier decided to head to Cadiz Bay to avoid pirates, but his luck ran out when the ship ran into a squadron of Barbary Corsairs just off the southern tip of Portugal. The San Estevan took evasive action and sailed north towards Lisbon. But the Corsairs were closing in.

The Captain defiantly ran the ship aground right under the guns of the Portuguese fort at Paredes. Conflicting stories say that the ship was set afire, others say the ship simply broke apart.

Soon afterwards, salvors recovered all of her cannon, three anchors, but only three chests of silver specie. The rest was buried under the sand.

All of this action was witnessed by this Piece-of-Eight. This cob is a direct link to this history. It was there -- center stage. It was part of a small group of fifteen coins discovered by divers in the 1970s and held by a Portuguese family until the 1990s. I purchased it from Dan Sedwick several years later. This cob has been a delight to own.

If you want to conjure up spirits from the past, then hold a shipwrecked coin in your palm. The darker emotions born of loss and destruction are potent and imbue shipwreck coins – like this one – with an energy that can be felt every time you hold it.

Relic Coins

Awful Beauty

Why do we love relics?

Because they are survivors. Because they have been found. Because they are mysterious. Because they show the cruel workings of Mother Nature. Because they predict our future. Because we get to step-in and save them.

Relics are beautiful. They are true. They have an authority that is unquestioned. There is an aesthetic that one has to develop to appreciate them -- a whole new set of skills that provides a break from our usual grading concerns.

Charles Dickens said that relics and ruins have an "Awful Beauty."

The collecting field is ripe with relic coins. Whereas most folks chase after unbroken arcs of luster, crusty relics are overlooked. And yet, they have the power to jolt us in unexpected ways.

Relics were there. They were part of the action. They make us wonder. What happened? When? Who lost it? And, how? Lustrous coins have no stories.

But is wonderment enough?

I think so, but I am in the minority. Relics will never make the Big Top, as most coin collectors strive to own the best, to compete, to buy wisely, to become investors ... and to worry.

Lost Cents; Dead Owners
Appreciating Coins in Decay

So I want to remind folks about my new "old" approach to collecting: The way of the necromancer.

If you want to re-experience the childlike wonderment that an old coin sparks (in this case, a coin that looks the part -- crusty and corroded), then go out and find my book:
LOST CENTS; DEAD OWNERS.

You can find my book on Amazon or at Books123. It is an easy read with color photos. It sets the stage for collecting in a new way -- like a necromancer.

No matter how entrenched you are in the MS Morgan or Eagle craze, I believe you will find my book stimulating. Some of my ideas will be appearing in the upcoming issue of The Numismatist -- so look for it.


I think coin collecting needs a jolt. LCDO will jolt you. And we need it; our obsession with the new and shiny is killing us.

Loving the Unloved: Primitive Large Cent Love Token OR ?

Love tokens are romantic. Or, at least they are supposed to be.

But every engraved coin is not a love token -- some are pendants, some amulets, others tags of some sort, and some are just a dalliance. Yet each of them marks a moment in time, a focused effort to produce something meaningful.

This is why we are fascinated. And the questions, there are many: who made it, when did they do it, and what was their intent? What sort of person carves their initials in a worn large cent thereby gaining an anonymous immortality?

A pendant? A tag?
As crudely done as it appears, some effort was taken
to include serifs and reposition the t-bar.

The WT inscription is crudely done -- a chisel or nail perhaps? But is was not hurried. The letters were embellished with bold serifs. The W slants and is irregular. The t-bar was corrected to align. The whole effect is pleasing.

It was holed for suspension.

Coins like this are not rare, yet each one is unique. There is a story here, but we cannot know it. And, unlike hundreds of other worn large cents that are perfectly worn and unmarked, this one is special because it has been marked. It is mysterious as such.

But it is unloved.

It was described as a "love token" when I found it listed. But what is it really? Every engraved coin is not about love or sweethearts.

I find it odd that coins with initials are ranked below those with counter-stamps. The most popular counter-stamps are those that have been attributed: a butcher here, a druggist there. Folks like to read about the business -- maybe get an old newspaper ad that has an image of the storefront.

For me, I find the mystery of a person just as interesting than a butcher or druggist who pounds his logo on every old cent that passes through the till. Don't get me wrong, I like counter-stamps too. But I don't get that excited about butchers -- although I do enjoy a nice steak now and then.

Old WT had an idea. He took and hour or two to fashion this cent into something that was on his mind. He worked at it with whatever tool was on hand. He used it, and now, many years later, here it is. He has turned to dust, yet his creation remains.

If you believe in contagion magic, then something of WT is animated within the rims of this old cent. The necromancer can feel it.