Medals, MEXICO, Republic, 8 Réales, 1895rs, Guanajuato, with crowned scroll mount by W. Kerr, Sydney, nov. 9 1914, hmas · sydney · sms · emden, 36.19g (Carlisle 1914/4; cf. Noble 99, 1222; cf. DNW 18 Sept. 2014, 560). Minor chopmarks both sides, otherwise about very fine and toned, rare £900-1,200

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, A Collection of Medals and Tokens Relating to S.M.S. Emden, the Property of a Gentleman.

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At the end of hostilities in 1918 the Royal Australian Navy decreed that 1,000 Mexican silver dollars from the 6,249 such pieces salvaged from the Emden in 1914 would be made into commemorative pieces by W. Kerr, a Sydney jeweller, and presented to the officers and men of HMAS Sydney present at the time of the engagement (or their next of kin). The distribution was made by Capt. C.T. Glossop, CB, who was in command of the Sydney in 1914. Presentations were also made to staff at Cocos Keeling and other Australian institutions and the balance was sold to the public, with the money raised used to defray Kerr’s costs