Next
club meeting Monday 2nd November
2015.
Please note the
change of details from the published information
·
Death of Commodus in 192 -
the Aftermath: in Britain and the Roman Empire By (our very own) Peter Hall.
Meetings are held
at the
Notices
·
The
Xmas dinner is booked for 18.45 on Sat 5 December 2015 at The Cunning
Man. The cost will be £25 per person, menu details are
given in a separate attachment to this e-mail. We have to pre-order three weeks
before. Note that coffee/ mince pie can be chosen in
place of a dessert. If you haven’t already done so, please let Peter know
1) if you want to attend
2) your menu choices
either by e-mail or at the November meeting.
·
Please continue thinking about Short Talks for
January, and Auction lots for March!
October Meeting
Our speaker was delayed so the meeting began with notices and then Mick
took to the floor to give us the talk he was due to give at the November
meeting. This was followed by the advertised talk, so two for the price of one!
As mentioned above, Mick’s talk in November will now be replaced by one from
Peter.
Workings at the Royal Mint in Victorian Times
Mick explained that while
researching the early industrialisation of money making he had come across a
book that graphically explained the processes involved in making coins at the
Royal Mint in the late 1850’s. At this time the Mint was not profitable and the
author, George F Ansell was commissioned to identify inefficiencies, corruption
and losses, and to recommend improvements. Thus he looked at every stage of the
money making process. Mick then showed pictures of these processes from
casting, rolling, weighing, making blanks and coining money. Mick explained the
slow development of cutting and coining machinery and why flaws often occur in
coins.
In a rather rushed conclusion
Mick highlighted some of Ansell’s achievements, namely the beginnings of
metallurgy and improvements to heat treatments that are well used today.
Unfortunately Ansell’s blunt criticisms of Management won him no friends and he
was sacked instead of being applauded.
Sharks, Shipwrecks and Spanish Coins
At the start Dick explained
that he was fortunate in that he was able to transform his hobbies - Sharks, Shipwrecks and Spanish Coins -
into businesses.
|
Living on the Isle of Wight
in one of the prime fossil locations (with Lyme Regis) meant access to the
fossilised remains of many creatures, and, in particular, sharks. He brought
a tooth from the Megalodon, one of the biggest
prehistoric sharks – growing to 60 feet – which was
very impressive. They had 276 teeth in 5 rows and, like sharks today, shed
their teeth throughout their lifetime. The largest Megalodon
teeth on record reached an eye-watering 7.25 inches. |
|
Dick moved on to his interest
in shipwrecks. Most international trade still goes by sea. At times in the past
10% of ships setting out would be wrecked. Trade involved cash, especially gold
and silver, which would be taken on the ship to pay for the goods. Therefore
most wrecks contained significant quantities of ‘treasure’, as well as
commercial goods. Dick explained that there were peaks and troughs in treasure
ship movements, with shipping dates of gold and silver from central and South
America often determined by wars in Europe and elsewhere. In the meantime
treasure would accumulate in America before joining a convoy to Spain. The
weather and pirates took a heavy toll and explains the great interest in
underwater archaeology (and plundering).
Several shipwrecks were
covered, ancient and modern: the P&O Liner SS Egypt sank after a collision with the Seine on 20 May 1922 in the English Channel. 252 people were
rescued from the 338 passengers and crew aboard at the time. A
subsequent salvage operation recovered most of the cargo of gold and silver,
but much was left behind. The Lutine sank during a storm in the West Friesen Islands on 9 October 1799,
whilst carrying a large shipment of gold. Shifting sandbanks disrupted salvage
attempts, and the majority of the cargo has never been recovered.
In late October 1859 the Royal
Charter was returning to
Liverpool from Melbourne. Her complement of about 371 passengers (with a crew
of about 112 and some other company employees) included many gold miners, some
of who had struck it rich at the diggings in Australia and were carrying large
sums of gold about their persons. A consignment of gold was also being carried
as cargo. As she reached the north-western tip of Anglesey on 25 October she
went aground. A large
quantity of gold was said to have been thrown up on the beach at Porth Alerth, with some families
becoming rich overnight. The gold bullion being carried as cargo was insured
for £322,000, but the total value of the gold on the ship must have been much
higher as many of the passengers had considerable sums in gold.
One of a huge fleet of 300 British ships on their way to the West
Indies to suppress a French uprising, the Piedmont was forced into Lyme Bay during a
hurricane on November 18, 1795 that scattered and sank many ships all along the
Dorset coast. The Piedmont and five other ships came to be known
collectively as the “Lyme Bay wrecks.” In the early 1980s, the wrecks were
salvaged by divers who discovered many silver cobs of the late 1600s on the
wreck site of the Piedmont. It
is presumed that the coins had been captured or recovered from a 17th-century
wreck and stored in the vaults of the Bank of England for about a century
before being transported and subsequently lost again.
|
Many of the wrecks
contained Spanish coins, especially from Potosi in Bolivia. These were silver
eight reales, pieces of eight, which became the
international currency in the 16th and 17th centuries. The flow of silver from the Americas increased at an incredible rate. From 148 kilos in the 1520s, it rose to 300,000 kilos in the 1550s, and nearly 3 million kilos in the 1590s. From the 1570s it increasingly came over to Europe ready-made into pieces of eight. Spanish coins being the third of Dick’s hobbies. |
|
Members thanked Dick for an
interesting speech.
Subscriptions
Be reminded that
subscriptions are now due. It would be most appreciated if members yet to renew
their subscription would please do so at the next meeting. Please see our
treasurer Peter Hall. For anyone who does not pay their subs, this is the last
issue of the newsletter they will receive.
Future
Events.
- London Coin Fair – Bloomsbury, London – 7th
November
- Birmingham Coin Fair - National Motorcycle museum
– 8th November
- Croydon Coin Auction – 17th November
Past Events
In October 1975 the club was given a talk entitled animals on coins
Ten years later the club auction took place - no details available
other than it was successful
In 2005 David Young give a talk on the Vauxhall Gardens
Club
Secretary.