S3853 Die #49, WW incuse, lite tic marks. During the early hours of the morning of May 7th 1869, the 282-ton 12 year old ship, General Abbatucci, was involved in a collision 24 miles off the north Corsican coast. The Edward Hewit, a 500-ton Norwegian barquentine, holed General Abbatucci below her starboard anchor. She took on water at great speed and sank within two hours of being hit, with the loss of 54 lives. She had left her home port of Marseilles the previous day on a routine monthly run to Civitavecchia, Italy, but her cargo was far from normal.  She was said to have been carrying several million gold French francs destined for the Vatican, gifts for the birthday of Pope Pius IX from Church officials in France, and possible pay for the French army in Italy. Her passengers included many powerful dignitaries and wealthy merchantmen, some with their families, a group of Pontifical guards, and the Pontifical Consul representing the Holy See in Marseilles, who was returning to Rome. An inquiry held by the Italian maritime judges ruled that The General Abbatucci was negligent for failing to keep a proper lockout, while the captain of The Edward Hewit was penalized for leaving the scene of the incident without making any attempt to pick up survivors.

The wreck of the General Abbatucci  lay untouched on the seabed in 8000 feet of water until she was located in May 1996, nearly 127 years after her sinking. The expected main cargo of French gold was not found but jewelry, watches and about 120 gold coins were recovered. The jewelry, coins and other artifacts were auctioned by Christie’s in 1997.

A very nice example, deep red gold color much fewer bagmarks than normally seen with this issue.  Ex Abbatucci cargo sold Christies 10 Jul 1997, ex Spink Numismatic Circ Apr 1998 item 2183, ex Sothebys sale Nov 2000 lot 525 part,  Ex Bentley collection part 3 sold Baldwins auction #79, May 8 2013 lot 1038.  An interesting coin to own when one considers that we know where it has been, almost since the day it was minted. NGC AU 58

NGC 2880413-001