Royal Mint Launches SS Gairsoppa 2014 Britannia Silver Coins

The Royal Mint has announced the new silver coin, SS Gairsoppa which is minted from the shipment of old silver bullions that sank into the sea before 70 years. The new coins will be available at Royal Mint web-shop through America’s chief precious metals dealer A-Mark Precious Metals, Inc. and their distributor Merit Gold and Silver.

The obverse of the coin depicts the classic and original reverse design of “Britannia” created by Philip Nathan which has variedly illustrated in other bullion coins since from the Mint’s beginning. It also bears the portrait of HM Queen Elizabeth II designed by sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley which has been in use on British & several commonwealth countries since 1998. The Royal Mint has said that the face value of the new coin is 50 pence.

During the world war second, Royal Mint faced a huge silver supply deficit and it invited more supplies from India. Though SS Gairsoppa, the British steam merchant ship carried the silver bullions to the mint with full security, it was torpedoed by a German U-boat at midnight on 17 February 1941 and sank into the sea bed.

The sunken ship was tracked September 2011, 300 miles off the Irish coast at a depth of three miles and recovered the silver bullies. It became the largest and deepest recovery in the history was done by Odyssey Marine Exploration for The Royal Mint. The Royal Mint has produced 99.9 pure 1/4oz silver Britannia bullion coins from the recovered silver.