Certification

ICG

SHIPWRECK TREASURE Strait of Malacca Pirate Coin, Wreck of Breda Banknote Pirate Money (Mini Album) Description The Strait of Malacca, a narrow waterway some 550 miles long, is the fastest maritime route from India to China. Flanked by Malaysia and Singapore on one side, and the Indonesian island of Sumatra on the other, the passage, with its myriad inlets and river outlets, has been a haven for pirates for centuries. Even today’s ships fall prey to modern-day pirates, who are far less colorful than the swashbucklers of old. In the Golden Age of Piracy, ships were routinely seized for their cargo, which included valuable spices from the Orient. These tin pitis coins were struck in Palembang, a major VOC port, in the late 18th century, and filled many a pirate’s treasure chest. History’s Mysteries: Treasure Hunt: Wreck of the Breda (album) Description Just before Christmas, 1940, Nazi aircraft flying over the United Kingdom from Norway bombed the harbor at Oban, Scotland, sinking a loaded cargo ship bound for Bombay, the S.S. Breda.–For five decades the wreck sat beneath the dark waters, her location well known to divers. But her strongroom remained sealed shut, its contents a mystery. Was there gold in that undersea vault? Jewels? When it was finally opened, divers were disappointed to instead find piles of blank sheets of white paper. Upon further inspection, they realized they’d salvaged something even more rare than precious metals: a cache of watermarked banknote sheets en route to the Reserve Bank of India. The so-called ”treasure sheets“ comprise what some experts consider the most numismatically unique shipwreck find of all time.