^Lot 476 Massive clump of one large iron cannonball and 500+ English East India Co. copper X cash, 1808.

Massive clump of one large iron cannonball and 500+ English East India Co. copper X cash, 1808. 13.3 kg; roughly 11-1/2" x 8-1/2" x 5-1/2". Without a doubt this is the most impressive shipwreck coin clump we have ever seen, as it is the first to include a 12-pound iron cannonball (with small casting hole but intact), incredibly fused with an arcuate dark mass of hundreds of copper coins, most complete and many with full details visible, also with a section of wood embedded and who-knows-what-else inside. A few coins have sloughed off over the years (two of them, tightly fused, included with the lot), but overall this behemoth is very solid and stable. In fact it is reminiscent of a fossilized dinosaur egg nests. When a similar monstrosity was recovered from the 1784 Cazador shipwreck years ago, it was nicknamed "The Whale," which is apt for this clump too, a uniquely impressive piece for the consummate shipwreck collector or museum. Recovered from: Admiral Gardner, sunk in 1809 southeast of England