Treasure of the Great Basses Reef.

Lump of Surat Rupees at Smithsonian

A lump of silver 1701 Surat rupees from the shipwreck discovered on 1961 March 22nd by Arthur C. Clarke and Mike Wilson at the Great Basses reef off the south east coast of Lanka near Kirinda. The science fiction grand master Sir Arthur C. Clarke (author of 2001: A Space Odyssey) who settles in Lanka in 1956 now resides there permanently.

Silver rupee minted in Surat (near Bombay) of the Mugal Empire, issued by Muhammad Aurangzeb Alamgir (ruled 1658-1707), with Islamic date 1113 AH (1701).

The coins appeared to have been packed in coir sacks with about 1000 coins each and perhaps packed several sacks to a wood chest. The coir bags held together long enough for the silver coins to have been concreted solidly together, so that when the sacks rotted away, the coins remained in twenty five pound lumps in the shape of the sack. The coins in the middle of the lumps were in perfect mint condition. The inner side of the outer coins were similarly protected as was the reverse of the coin shown above.

The Smithsonian institute was donated a 1,000 rupee lump soon after the discovery of the unrecorded wreck on the Great Basses Reef - off the south east coast of Lanka.
Lump at Smithsonian
© Smithsonian
Accession record 239761 dated December 7, 1961 describes a gift made to the Smithsonian by Arthur C. Clarke. as 1 cluster of approx. 1000 silver rupees dated 1702, found off Great Basses Reef, Ceylon by Mr. Mike Wilson. Appendix C of Clarke's book are notes supplied by Mendel Peterson, former Curator of Underwater Exploration for the Smithsonian Institution, on the Preservation of objects recovered from the Sea.

This Lump of coin was last shown in public at the Aditi - The Monies of India exhibition at the National Museum of American History from 1985 October 24, till 1986 April 24. A B&W image of it appears in the interesting exhibition souvenir page 28 Lot 167 with description The concreted mass of approximately 1,000 silver rupees struck in pre 1702 weighs approx 40 pounds. It was found off Great Passes(sic) Reef Ceylon and still retains the original shape of the bag in which the coins were stored The 1,000 Rupee coins weighs 25.7 pounds of silver.

Paul Johnston, Curator of Maritime History informs me that the underwater collections gathered back in the 1960's by Mendel Peterson, currently has this item, and sent me this photograph of it. Thousand coins as shown on right in loosely sacked lump is about a 8 inch cube (well packed 4x4x62 coins it will be about 4.3 inch cube) I had an opportunity to see this complete lump at Smithsonain in 2005.

Another complete lump with the coins still embedded in coral could be seen at the Clarkives in England.

A third lump is currently with Carl Fismer of DiveForTreasure in Florida. It was taken out illegally from Lanka in 1992 was offered for Sale in USA as the Taj Mahal Treasurer to Trump plaza for US$1M, and subsequently on eBay Auction for US$0.7M, and on TV show Pawn Stars, and declined US$0.2M but as far as I know not yet sold. Attempts to get this lump back to Lanka have failed, although the dealer, who replied to Sir Arthur Clarke in 2008 and agreed to return it, did not show after negotiation with Clarke Foundation based in USA. IMHO, there was insufficient official pressure to get it back. Now that Arthur has passed away it is probably far more difficult.

I am in the process of obtaining high quality images of various lumps for this website. There are a number of small broken parts and I saw one in Colombo few years ago in the possession of Valerie.