Successful arrest at the CSNS coin exchange
May 7, 2026
It was an eight-escudo coin minted in Lima in 1709, which – as it later transpired – came from the McGregor collection. The coin had been lying on the seabed in a sunken ship. The ship was part of the Spanish treasure fleet that was sunk by a hurricane off the coast of Florida on 31 July 1715. In November 2025, Sedwick & Associates auctioned this coin for $40,500 including the buyer’s premium.
But let’s hear from the hero of the story, Tony Gryckiewicz, in his own words: “The two suspects presented the coin at my table for sale at a suspiciously low price. It is a high-end collector’s item, and I asked them where they had got it from.
They told me the coin had been found amongst their grandmother’s belongings at her house. I found this very odd.” The dealer and the sellers could not reach an agreement, so the two moved on, whilst Tony began to make enquiries. ‘I spoke to a friend, David Huang, a collector who sits on the Advisory Board of the 1715 Fleet Society and is a specialist in 1715 Fleet gold cobs such as the one presented to me.’ Naturally, his friend was exactly the right person to ask. He told Tony just how rare the piece was. He searched further and found a recent auction result at the Sedwick auction – for precisely the piece on offer! Dan Sedwick also had a table at the CNCS, so Tony informed him about the offer. Dan immediately rang the buyer of the piece, only to learn that the coin had been missing for some time.
From Coin Weekly