HELP IN IDENTIFYING SPANISH COIN

ronswan

A number of years, ago, a friend of mine who lived near treasure beach in Melbourne, FL, gave me this spanish silver coin. He said that the person that he bought it from, said it came from a treasure ship. Can anyone help to identify it and advise me where I could get more info. on it? It weighs 18.5 Grams.

candy2012mustang

Looks to be off the Atocha(?) and is a 4 reales(?).

DorkGirl

Andres

Yes, a shipwreck coin, not from the Atocha, but more likely from the San Martin, who sunk in a storm near Vero beach - Florida in 1618
locally known as the Green cabin wreck.

its a 8 reales spanish cob, which lost about 9 grams, which dissolved in the seawater.
original weight 27,5 gram.

minted in Potosi - Bolivia under the rule of probably King Philips the III
one side has the Habsburg shield, which shows the territories the Habsburgers (once) owned ,the other side has the Catholic cross with lions & castles (stands for the spanish provincies Leon & Castilië )


since there is no date , mintmark or essayer visible , this is all I can tell you,
except for the market value , around $ 50 .

regards, Andres

lordmarcovan

I wouldn't begin to know how to authenticate that piece.

Do note that there are gazillions of replicas out there (it's easier to fake something that was crudely made to begin with), so be wary there. (And practically every fake that is dishonestly sold also has a fake "shipwreck" or "treasure" story to go with it. Sad but true.)

Mind you, I'm not saying that IS fake. I have no idea, personally. Just take it with a grain of salt until it is professionally authenticated, that's all.

It's going to take someone with more specialized knowledge to give an valid opinion. That person could be lurking here, though. Stick around- these forums are great.



PS- I used to live in Melbourne, Florida, on a boat in a marina. In the drydock berth behind our boat was a professional treasure salvor's boat called the Tequesta, with the "mailbox" chutes on the stern and everything. I was a kid who had just started collecting coins, and one of those guys showed me a salvaged piece of eight. It made a mark on my impressionable young imagination. I've been a treasure hunter myself since the late 1970s, though on a much more modest scale (on land, with a metal detector, one coin at a time).