As a kid I used to drool over all the old silver shipwreck coins from the Dutch VOC wrecks off the West Australian coast. The West Australian Maritime Museum have heaps from these old wrecks. While in Amsterdam last year I visited the Rijksmuseum to see Dirk Hartogs 1616 Pewter Plate. The previous occasion I was in Amsterdam, the Dirk’s plate was on tour in Australia! While in Amsterdam, I visited a coin shop and bought a few sovereigns and was taken by a big silver Rijksdaaler minted in Overijssel in 1620. I bought it but later was concerned it may not have been silver. The coin did not ring as most silver coins do. The coin did have a small crack in it’s edge. It’s the coin shown in my avatar. Today I dropped into Bullion Now in Melbourne. I took my big Rijksdaaler with me in the hope to have it XRF’d. Ruben from Bullion Now happily tested it. This was the result: Ag. 93.56% Cu. 5.92% Pb. 0.326% Au. 0.19% it appears my coin is legit. I didn’t expect the silver content to be so high or for it to include Lead and Gold! Many thanks Bullion Now for testing my only coin!
