QUIRKY WORLD ... Second of a kind coin found in shipwreck

OMAN: The 500-year-old wreckage of a Portuguese ship piloted by an uncle of explorer Vasco da Gama has been found off the coast of Oman, a discovery that included the recovery of an incredibly rare coin — of which only one other was thought to exist.

QUIRKY WORLD ... Second of a kind coin found in shipwreck

The Esmeralda sank during a violent storm near al-Hallaniyah Island in the Indian Ocean in May 1503, killing commander Vicente Sodre and all those aboard.

Beginning in 2013, a team from the British company Blue Water Recoveries and the Oman ministry of heritage and culture explored a site in the island’s Ghubbat ar Rahib Bay. They later determined the debris found there came from the long-missing ship, one of two lost in the storm from da Gama’s second voyage to India.

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