In 1702, AD, an Indian trader sailed from India bound for the Far East on the ''spice route,'' on a ship from the fleet of the Dutch East India Company. She carried a treasure to satiate desire. Bag after bag, containing 1,000 coins each of exquisitely minted silver rupees. The rupees had been minted on orders of Aurangzeb (1618-1707 AD), the sixth Mughal emperor of India.
On the way to the East, the trader probably anchored at the Portuguese trading post on the island of Ceylon (present day Sri Lanka), but disaster struck as it continued on its voyage around the southern tip of the Island with no storm warnings. The typhoon swept them on to the rocks off the Indian Ocean's Great Basses Reef off the southern coast of Ceylon. The Great Basses Reef is a treacherous stretch of turbulent water that masks a deceptively shallow depth of only around 10 to 15 feet.
Few records were recovered relating to the loss of life or the thousands of silver rupees that were part of the merchant ship's cargo.
In 1961, film makers Mark Smith and Bobby Kriegel spotted the silhouette of a small cannon while they were photographing large groupers that congregated off a picturesque fishing village along the palm -fringed coast. Returning the next day, they recovered the cannon along with several buckets of silver rupees.
Smith and Kriegel contacted their friend and fellow diver, Arthur C. Clarke, an Englishman who had made the Island his home since 1956. He was an avid scuba diver and often wrote about underwater exploration. In 1963, Clarke and his dive associates recovered the treasure on the treacherous Great Basses Reef. Buried among the debris were concrete masses of silver rupees. Most people know Clarke as the Nobel- nominated ''Father of satellite communications'' and author of the bestseller, 2001: A Space Odyssey. He helped them claim salvage rights and identify the coins.
Clarke made several dives on the wreck and retrieved some coins that he sent for display to Smithsonian Institute, Washington, DC. They called it the Taj Mahal Treasure. More than 5,000 coins were retrieved in single denominations and clumps weighing 30 pounds (13.6 kg) each. The Arabic script stamped on them translated as a mint mark from 1702 AD. All were newly minted. They had all been minted in Surat in the year AH 1113, or AD 1701 and 1702 during the 45th and 46th regnal years of Aurangzeb.
The two salvage sleuths became diving buddies and good friends until Clarke's death in 2008 at age 90.
The silver rupees in what is now known as the Taj Mahal Sunken Treasure collection are exclusive to ''Cannon Beach Treasure Company''. They are from Clarke's personal collection.
Taj Mahal Shipwreck Sunken Treasure Rupee coin AD 1702, Grade 3 Clump.
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