2016-12-05 Mon

Coins, including over 200 gold pieces that were discovered along with the shipwreck of Spanish 1715 Plate Fleet, will be offered for sale to collectors for the first time.

The ship started its journey from Havana, Cuba to Spain on 24th July 1715. Out of the 12 ships in the fleet, 11 were sunk by a hurricane on 31st July. More than thousand people were killed when the ships sank off the eastern coast of Florida.

The sunken ship with the treasure was found just a hundred feet from Vero Beach, Florida in 2015. The 224 coins found in the ship were struck in Colombia, Mexico and Peru. The gold coins valued from one escudo to eight escudos, and were struck between 1692 and 1715 by the Spanish Kings Charles II and Philip V. 71 shipwreck coins were also discovered in 2010 and 2013, some of which were found inside a ship’s cannon. All of them, which have an estimated total market value of $1 million, will now be available to collectors for the first time. All except five coins are in Mint State.

The best of the lot include:

An MS 641712 Peru 8 escudos of Philip V

An MS 66 1711 Peru LM 2 escudos of Philip V Peru

An MS 64 1699 Colombia 2 escudos of Charles II.