2016-10-17 Mon

Over 200 gold coins discovered on the 300th anniversary of the hurricane that drowned the Spanish 1715 Plate Fleet will be offered for sale for the first time. The shipwreck was recovered on 31st July 2015. One of the coins offered is a 1694 – 1713 Charles II type gold 2 escudos struck in Colombia.

The ship carrying New World treasure traveled from Havana, Cuba to Spain on 24th July 1715. 11 of the 12 ships sank near the eastern coast of Florida, killing more than 1000 people. The shipwreck was found in 6 feet of water in Vero Beach, Florida. Officials stated that the study of these coins would give a fair idea of Spanish colonization of the New World and life on the high seas in 1715. The denominations of the coins struck in Colombia, Mexico and Peru between 1692 and 1715 under the Spanish Kings Charles II and Philip V, range from one escudo to eight escudos. 224 coins were discovered in 2015 and 71 shipwreck coins in 2010 and 2013. All of them will now be available for collectors. Some of them were discovered inside a ship’s cannon. The total estimated market value of the coins authenticated by NGC is $1 million. Except for five coins, all others are in Mint State.

Some of the star coins from the shipwreck include:

a 1712 Peru 8 escudos of Philip V, graded NGC MS 64;

a 1711 Peru LM 2 escudos of Philip V Peru, NGC MS 66; and

a 1699 Colombia 2 escudos of Charles II, graded NGC MS 64, that was discovered inside a recovered bronze cannon.