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1715 coins that were never circulated

Island Man USVI

New Member
Joined
Dec 1, 2012
Messages
6
Location
Savannah, GA
In the early 1960s, the Virgin Islands government began dredging sand out of Gregerie channel to fill a swampy area of Crown Bay, St Thomas. Gregerie Channel was traditionally used as a staging (parking) area for boats waiting to have their cargo offloaded in the Charlotte Amalie harbor. In addition to many other artifacts, large amounts of small copper coins were found in the dredged sand. The coin books at that time made it clear that these were Danish West Indian coins. However, we never found an example of these exact coins in any publications. After sending samples to the Danish government and waiting more than a year we finally got a response. In 1715 the Danish government minted the first coins for the Virgin Islands. The boat delivering the coins sank in Gregerie channel between St Thomas and Water Island and the coins never went into circulation. All these years later I still have a small hand full of these treasures!

I was blessed to have grown up in St Thomas USVI. Started metal detecting when I was about 10 years old. I have lots of great memories of treasure hunting there. This is my favorite!
 

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super cool find

In the early 1960s, the Virgin Islands government began dredging sand out of Gregerie channel to fill a swampy area of Crown Bay, St Thomas. Gregerie Channel was traditionally used as a staging (parking) area for boats waiting to have their cargo offloaded in the Charlotte Amalie harbor. In addition to many other artifacts, large amounts of small copper coins were found in the dredged sand. The coin books at that time made it clear that these were Danish West Indian coins. However, we never found an example of these exact coins in any publications. After sending samples to the Danish government and waiting more than a year we finally got a response. In 1715 the Danish government minted the first coins for the Virgin Islands. The boat delivering the coins sank in Gregerie channel between St Thomas and Water Island and the coins never went into circulation. All these years later I still have a small hand full of these treasures!

I was blessed to have grown up in St Thomas USVI. Started metal detecting when I was about 10 years old. I have lots of great memories of treasure hunting there. This is my favorite!
goes under the wow finds of a life time.
 
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