Coins and Historical Medals

London Missionary Society, 1796, a white metal medal, unsigned, ship in full sail to left, rev. with missionaries to the south seas for the conversion of the heathens, 38mm (BHM 416; MH 449a; E 875). Very fine and very rare; pierced for suspension £200-£300

Provenance: R. Lyall Collection [bt 1987].

Following reports of the inhabitants of Tahiti and other islands in the South Seas by Capt. Cook, among others, the London Missionary Society, which was formed in 1795, funded the purchase of a ship, Duff, placed under the command of Capt. James Wilson. Wilson, his crew and a party of missionaries sailed on 10 August 1796, via the Cape of Good Hope, reaching Tahiti in 1797, where a missionary station was established. Similar stations were set up in Tonga and on the Marquesas; the Duff returned to London in July 1798. Unfortunately a second voyage, in December 1799, taking more missionaries to Tahiti, met with disaster when the ship was captured by a French privateer, landed at Montevideo and sold