Brazil José I 1775 4,000 Reis Lisbon shield

Brazil, Jose I (1750-77), gold 4,000 Reis, 1775, crowned arms with .4000. vertical down left side, three quatrefoils vertical down right side, legend and toothed border surrounding, IOSEPHUS. I. D. G. PORTUG. REX~, rev. cross at centre of four arc tressure with leaf at each inner cusp, inner and outer toothed border and legend surrounding, date at top, ET. BASILIÆ. DOMINVS. ANNO. 1775, edge engrailed, weight 8.09g (R.310; Gomes 63.07; LDMB 335; Fr.73). Some light surface marks with light tone, with underlying brilliance, extremely fine and intriguing to think the coin has been to the bottom of the Bay of Biscay and back with the shipwreck provenance.

The obverse legend translates as "Jose the First, by the grace of God, King of Portugal and Lord of Brazil in the year 1775"

The Royal Mail Steamer Douro sank in 1,500 feet of water after colliding with the Spanish steamer Yrurac Bat at 4am on the 2^nd April 1882 in the Bay of Biscay off Cape Finisterre. The Douro built in 1865 was a popular choice of those first class passengers who liked to travel from South America to England via Portugal. The Douro was on the final leg of her journey en route to Southampton when tragedy struck. The Chief Officer had not noticed the light of the approaching Spanish ship until it was too late to take evasive action and the Yrurac Bat struck the Douro hard on the starboard area near the mainmast and rebounded, and as the engines were still running hard, she ploughed forward again striking the Douro a second time in the aft. The Yrurac Bat lost 30 men and all survivors of which the Douro's were mainly the women and the children, were picked up by the ship Hidalgo of Hull and landed at Corunna.

Moving forward 111 years the wreck was at last located in 1993 after marine researcher Nigel Pickford spent ten years researching the Douro, its cargo and whereabouts after being left a cryptic note by his Father dating back to 1949 merely saying "Douro, 1882, £53,000, Bay of Biscay." The Deepsea Worker Salvage team led by Sverker Hallstrom recovered much of the cargo culminating in what was the most valuable coin auction that Spink and Son had ever held as of 1996 with 1,713 lots of coins and artefacts from the ship. Some 28,000 Sovereigns were recovered from the wreck with a proportion appearing in the auction sale, the remainder gradually found their way into the market-place in the succeeding decade by private treaty. However the coin offered herewith is one of the few world coins that were formed a small proportion of the cargo and is one of the actual pieces from this ground-breaking auction sale. This coin is one of only 7 gold 4,000 Reis coins of Jose I from Brazil, 52 being of the Rio mint and this coin was only one of two dated 1775.

Provenance:

Ex Douro Cargo, Spink Coin Auction 118, 20^th-21^st November 1996, lot 36 - with original lot card from the sale.