Greetings all. Here is an interesting article that I came across in the on-line weekly publication, E-Sylum. Published by Wayne Homren, E-Sylum is a must read for those interested in coins and all things coin related. The subject article was written by Gary Beals. It is a fascinating article which describes efforts by commercial salvors to “conserve” Spanish reales (silver coins produced by Spanish mints) from the 1622 wrecks. The technique implemented was thought to improve the appearance of recovered Spanish coins in order to enhance their marketability. In point of fact, the method chosen actually resulted in the wholesale destruction of the coins’ numismatic value. It is fortunate that the silver reales recovered from the 1715 Fleet wreck sites were not subjected to this method of conservation to a great extent. While early methods to clean salvaged Fleet coins were also crude and harsh, fortunately other processes were developed that did serve to enhance the appearance of salvaged silver coins without affecting the value.
The article by Gary Beals of Segovia, Spain titled “The Horror of Drum-Polished Eight Reales” was published July 4, 2021 in The E-Sylum, an email newsletter edited by Wayne Homren.
It can be read in its entirety here: https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n27a26.html
Wayne is a lifelong collector whose specialties include encased postage stamps, private scrip, tokens, medals, and emergency moneys of all kinds.. He collects the works of money artist J.S.G. Boggs and has a private library of over 3,000 volumes on U.S. numismatics. He is a fellow of the American Numismatic Society, received the 2008 Burnett Anderson Memorial
Award for Numismatic Writing, and was named by Coin World to its list of the Most Influential People in Numismatics 1960-2020.
If you’re not already a subscriber to The E-Sylum, consider signing up. It’s a free weekly newsletter published by the Numismatic Bibliomania Society. You don’t have to be a member. Begun in 1998, the newsletter goes out by email every Sunday night to over 6,600 numismatic bibliophiles, researchers, and just plain collectors around the world. Topics are all over the numismatic map, and most people find something of interest each week. Coins, tokens, medals and paper money of all time periods are discussed as well as news on a wide spectrum of numismatics and numismatic personalities. They’d love to have you on board.
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