SOVEREIGN OF 1837
FOUND IN A FISH A sovereign, dated 1837, the year Queen Victoria came to the Throne, fell from a nice-sized butterfish when it was being cleaned by a fisherman at Coorong, South Australia. The sovereign was shiny and bore the head of King William IV, Queen Victoria’s uncle.
The theory of South Australia’s chief fisheries inspector, Mr. Frank Moorhouse, is that the sovereign belonged to a passenger in the brigantine Maria, wrecked off the Coorong coast in 1840. Natives killed some passengers and took their belongings. “The natives were in possession of coins later, and as they hunted game up and down the Coorong, the coin might easily have dropped into its waters,” added the inspector. However, he had no explanation how the butterfish could have acquired the piece of gold or how long the fish had lived.
In Adelaide the finder handed in his sovereign at the Savings Bank and received £2 9s Id.
fee from the university.—P.A.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/GISH19450630.2.94
Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21753, 30 June 1945, Page 6
Word Count
162SOVEREIGN OF 1837 Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXII, Issue 21753, 30 June 1945, Page 6
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