The coin was found by Diana Davis, head of conservation at the National Museum of the Royal Navy, Photo: PA Media
Happy Trafalgar Day, one day late. A story for Trafalgar Day, plus one.
When one of the masts of Nelson’s flagship HMS Victory was removed for restoration work, a conservator found a Victorian-era coin that had been placed beneath the mast for good luck, 127 years ago. The coin, a farthing, dates to 1894, the year a set of masts were installed on the ship after the previous ones became rotten.
The BBC quotes HMS Victory’s principal heritage adviser Rosemary Thornber called the coin “invaluable”.
In its day it was worth a quarter of a penny, and now would have a value of 0.1p. The now-corroded coin once showed Queen Victoria’s head on one side, and Britannia on the other, with a lighthouse in the background.
The tradition of placing coins under ships’ masts dates back to Roman times and still continues today.
Ms Thornber said: “We had wondered if there would be a coin under the mast, to follow with naval tradition, and imagine our excitement when the coin was found and news rapidly spread through the team, who were sworn to secrecy whilst we conserved it and made plans to put it on display.”
The coin is now on display to mark Trafalgar Day at the NMRN, next to Victory’s dry dock at Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
Thanks to Alaric Bond for contributing to this post.
Seehttps://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2021/october/21/211021-hms-victory-coin also ~
Using the smallest denomination coin available to bring good luck? It’s amazing the ship is still with us 🙂