BVI Hunter
Bronze Member
Last edited:
Upvote
57
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature may not be available in some browsers.
Excellent find. Congrats! You just made this newbie treasure hunter excited to start into this hobby/full time job.
UPDATE;
Sedwicks suggested starting at $500
I decided to do a little research for you on Live Auctioneers, which is a free site of auction results (prices.) The link is below, but you might have to register (it's free) to view the sale prices. I searched under "shipwreck coin." To use the site, register, than make sure you are searching in the "sold category" as opposed to "live category." These are the results I'm finding. There's about 100 results. Sedwick is in the ballpark; though like some posters have stated, there might be a rare coin in the cluster, which would raise the value. Search shipwreck coin - Live Auctioneers
A Spanish Shipwreck Silver Coin Cluster, 18th Century. Gray's Auctioneers
08:00 AM PT
Jan 30
$425 (not as nice as yours)
Four Spanish Colonial Shipwreck Silver 8 Reales Coins Michaan's Auctions
10:00 AM PT
Jan 7 2012
$350
Spanish 8 Reale Shipwreck Coin. Coin Number 94A-6200... Fontaines Auction Gallery
08:00 AM PT
Feb 11 2012
$2,500
2 REALES SPANISH ATOCHA SHIPWRECK TREASURE... Manor Auctions
12:00 PM PT
Oct 9 2010
$225
For the collector with an appreciation of shipwreck coins: Three Bolivian silver one reale cobs salvaged in a clump from the shipwreck Consolacion which sank off Santa Clara Island, Ecuador in 1681. Three coins were among the few from this wreck that were brought up by divers and left in their original state. One clean coin is at a right angle to the other two in a tight sandwich. Note the small pebbles and sand from the sea floor still firmly attached to the coins after 300 years. Comes with Certificate of Authenticity and brochure about this famous shipwreck. $250 (Again, in my opinion, not as nice as yours)
Auctions are always a crap shoot, unless the item is exceedingly good and there is a track record of past sales of similar items to give you an idea of what you can expect. I've consigned many, many things to auction over the years, and sometimes things take off and sell for way beyond what you were expecting, and sometimes they go low or don't sell at all. I'm surprised Sedwick didn't give you an estimated range of value with a high and low price. Usually, when I auction, I use the house reserve of about 60% of the low estimate. An estimate of $4000-$6000, would have a reserve of $2400. But keep in mind, if he's wants to start the bidding at $500, a realistic selling price might only be something like between $1000-$2500 tops, but we're not the experts when it comes to estimating the value of this coin clump; Sedwick is. Finally, if you do sell the coins for say, only, $1000-$2000, you'll going to spend the money, and then the money and the coins will be gone for ever. So you've got figure out how much of a collector you are, and how much you'll miss the coins once they're gone, and how much dough would make you happy to compensate for never having that "find of a lifetime" again. One more thing, you've got to try to nail him down and give you what he thinks these coins will realistically sell for. He's had to sell something similar to this clump in the past.
The $500 quote is simply based on the estimated value of the coins and it being a neat but not particularly significant item. I also think the $500 is the estimated value, and of course to protect yourself it would be the right starting point at auction. So I doubt it would go 2-3 times higher... otherwise he would have said something else.
Auctions can be very unpredictable. My business partner and I once had an item go for almost 29x the high estimate. Needless to say it was a fabulous payday! Though after researching coin clusters at auction, it seems you and Sedwick are probably right with $500.00. Not worth selling them at that price, unless obtaining food is a problem!
I wouldn't have made a guess on value because it's something I've never sold before, I was just suggesting why he likely didn't give a range.
An item to go for 29 times the estimate would be a rarer thing than the item itself, and I'd always question how anyone could be so wrong. $1,000 estimate going for 29k, or a $10,000 for 290k? I just don't see how someone can be that far off. Not saying it's not true, just think an experienced appraiser would not miss that bad, because even your craziest bidding war does not go 29 times. It sure must have been exciting to watch though.
hey! great info, and very much appreciated!!
I think I may well be holding onto my "first" treasure clump, as you say, the monetary values will not outweigh the sentimental value!
and as I said to my pal....
"There's plenty more where that came from..........!!"
There's two words that holds some truth to a find " I HAVE vs I HAD "
For myself it's hard to remember the HAD, and no recollection of the money spent, Now later the still HAVE spark that little pleasure button and brings back the memory of the find.
I just spent two great hours reading this entire thread. How exciting, and congratulations on your wonderful find!! I wish you much luck in your follow up searches and please keep us posted!
Sara Jayne
Rago Arts & Auctions Center (You've seen David Rago and his wife Suzanne Perrault on the Road Show for art pottery)
Lambertville, NJ
April 12, 2008
DONALD DESKEY Silver-plated metal desk lamp, 1927: Estimate $2000-$4000 Hammer Price $115,000.00, with buyers premium $138,000
Extremely rare, never auctioned before. Not even in pristine condition. My partner bought it at an estate sale in Queens for $10.00. He knew something was up when Rago started to add many additional pictures to their auction's web site, due to the amount of condition requests (condition reports) they were receiving.
You kind of forced me to reveal too much info about my business, and I didn't really mean to be a braggart. But here it is:
78: DONALD DESKEY Silver-plated metal desk lamp, 1927. : Lot 78
The $110,000 hammer is an error. It was bid up another $5,000 that was not recorded (Of course we got paid on the additional 5K)
By the way, the bidding war did not go on for "29" times. I think with all the left bids they received before the auction, he opened it up at something like $20,000. With so much interest, I think it quickly moved up to 50K, and then as bid increments are increased at that level there was probably only 5 at the most still bidding. Though, I did not watch the auction live, my partner did. I was busy and forgot what time it was going off. Also I really did not put a lot of interest in it due to the low pre-auction estimates. My business partner was watching live on the computer, while I was puttering around the store dealing with a customer, and he used to have a nasty habit of not saying anything till the auction ended. When it did, he said the Deskey sold for 10K, and I was okay that's real good. Then he said x 11, and I was like, what the f--K did you just say? And he goes it sold for 110k. That's when I flipped out. It wasn't till Monday (sale was Saturday) that we found out the actual price was 115k. Needless to say, we don't buy lottery tickets, we go to estate sales.