DATELINE: 4th January 2001

TROUBLED TREASURE SELLS
Some 800 gold coins, which have been at the centre of a celebrated ownership battle, raised almost £500,000 when they were auctioned recently at Spinks in London, writes Rex Cowan. The coins, mainly minted in Lisbon and Rio and dated between 1727 and 1754, were raised by South African divers in 1997.
The salvage led to a dispute between the group, which claimed that the coins were taken from a wreck off Bird Island, outside South African territorial waters, and the South African government, which claimed ownership on grounds that the coins came from the wreck of the East Indiaman Clive, sunk inside territorial waters in 1755.
Sale of the coins finally went ahead three years after their salvage, when both parties reached a settlement in an action brought by the South African government in the British High Court.
The settlement resolved the immediate dispute but still left many questions unanswered about the provenance of the treasure. This uncertainty and the high value of the coins (the lowest price for one was £322) led to a marked lack of enthusiasm among the souvenir-collecting public, but 10 coin dealers cleared the lots, with spirited bidding which saw some of the rare coins sold for up to £17,250.

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