{"id":7548,"date":"2021-07-07T09:55:01","date_gmt":"2021-07-07T07:55:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thomasnumismatics.com\/?post_type=actualites&p=7548"},"modified":"2021-08-04T16:59:21","modified_gmt":"2021-08-04T14:59:21","slug":"treasure-hollandia","status":"publish","type":"actualites","link":"https:\/\/thomasnumismatics.com\/en\/blog\/treasure-hollandia\/","title":{"rendered":"The treasure of the Hollandia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Hollandia<\/strong> was an East India Company merchant<\/strong> ship that sank in 1743 in the Isles of Scilly in the Celtic Sea, off the coast of Cornwall. The wreck was discovered in 1971 by Rex Cowan, a London treasure hunter<\/strong>. He and his team of divers discovered approximately 35,000 silver coins<\/strong> out of the 129,700 florins recorded on board. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hollandia: a VOC vessel <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Hollandia was built in 1742 by the VOC, the Dutch East India Company. Intended primarily for maritime traffic<\/strong>, it was equipped with 32 cannons <\/strong>to defend itself against pirates and enemy maritime powers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its maiden trip began on June 3, 1743. On that day, it left the port of Texel with a convoy bound for Batavia in the Dutch East Indies<\/strong>. On June 13, the Dutch ship lost its way in the fog and headed for the Scilly Islands. It hit rocks a few kilometers from the island of Annet. The crew fired several cannons to alert the locals, but to no avail. All the passengers died and the cargo sank <\/strong>to a depth of thirty meters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u00a9wikimedia by Pvt pauline<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The treasure of the Hollandia: coins of eight reales<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Hollandia was carrying 276 people and small barrels filled with silver coins <\/strong>worth approximately 129,700 florins. The coins were mainly Spanish coins<\/strong>, four and eight reales<\/strong>, minted in Mexico and Bolivia and they had hardly circulated before this trip. There were also a few silver cobs<\/strong>, such as rare Mexican “klippes”<\/strong> from 1733 to 1734, cobs from Guatemala and ducatons<\/strong> from the Netherlands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n