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Italian 1000-lire banknote of 1947 recovered from the wreck, encased in Lucite with hand-signed card

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Shipwreck - Silver Coins 1750s-1900s Start Price:320.00 USD Estimated At:400.00 - 600.00 USD
Italian 1000-lire banknote of 1947 recovered from the wreck, encased in Lucite with hand-signed card
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This item SOLD at 2012 Oct 25 @ 22:47UTC-4 : AST/EDT
All items are genuine unless noted. Most shipwreck coins and artifacts come with a certificate of authenticity (please check the description for each item). By bidding in this auction you understand and agree to the Terms and Conditions posted here.
Italian 1000-lire banknote of 1947 recovered from the wreck, encased in Lucite with hand-signed card from the salvagers, and housed in a custom box with booklet and VHS tape. 12-1/2" x 8-1/2" x 2" (in box). Paper money from a shipwreck is a near-impossibility; but in 1984 divers recovered a safe from this famous wreck and found it to contain intact banknotes like this one, with a little bit of edge loss but otherwise as well-detailed and colorful as the day it was lost, here elegantly displayed and housed. The New York-bound Italian luxury liner Andrea Doria famously sank after a collision off the coast of Nantucket, Massachusetts in 1956, in effect closing the era of transatlantic travel by ship (planes being preferred ever since). Today the Doria is known as the "Mount Everest of scuba diving," for its depth of well over 150 feet requires mixed gas and staged decompression, not to mention the frigidity of the water and dangerous currents, and also falling rigging and fishermen's nets. The few artifacts available today from this wreck must be appreciated not only for the initial tragedy but also for the difficulty with which they were obtained. Recovered from: Andrea Doria, sunk in 1956 off Massachusetts