1733 Fleet Shipwreck Mexico Silver 4-Reales Cob withCOA

Recovered from: The Spanish 1733 Fleet, Coffins Patch Area, Florida Keys. This silver cob comes with a Marathon Shipwreck Coin Company Certificate of Authenticity. The coin was recovered by long-time salvor Richard Boileau.

The local dive shop owner and his wife have recovered numerous treasures and artifacts from the 1733 Fleet. His dive shop is a mini-museum with many wonderful shipwreck artifacts on display. It also includes a beautiful large replica of a hand-constructed Spanish galleon. There is no charge to tour the exhibits but donations are appreciated.

It is a wonderful experience if you ever happen to travel to Marathon, Florida. Many people visit the dive shop/museum but if you are very lucky he might invite you to pick a coin out of the pickle jar he keep behind the counter. It is a blind pull, you just have to feel around and select a coin. The coins are uncleaned and in a solution of water and baking soda to keep them from turning into silver sulfide. You might get a good coin, or you might get a great coin.

Some lucky visitors have even pulled out rare pillar dollars dated 1732 and 1733. This is a very nice little coin. It is as pulled and has never been cleaned. You can see details of the Hapsburg shield on the obverse as well as a faint cross on the reverse side. Some cleaning might even reveal further details such as a date or assayer. The following is a brief account of the loss of the fleet. (New Spain Fleet) set sail from Havana bound forSpain. The fleet was under the commandof Lieutenant General Don Rodrigo de Torres y Morales. Crammed within the holds of these mightysailing vessels was wealth from the New World, a treasure consisting of 12.4million pesos in Mexican silver and gold as well a general cargo. Much confusion exists as to the exact numberof ships in the fleet. Most documents listeither twenty-one or twenty-two as the total number of vessels, however, eventhat remains uncertain.

The names ofthe various vessels in the fleet is also confusing as many ships had more thanone, usually a religious name, a nickname and sometimes an alias. However, the majority of the documents agreethat the following ships were in the fleet when it sailed from Havana. The sun was shiningbrightly and the weather was calm as the convoy of ships left the safety of Havana Harbour and entered the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea.

Throughout the day the fleet enjoyed a steady breeze as the helmsmen guided their vessels into the Gulf Stream. That night, the fleet continued to experiencefair weather and continued to make good progress. The following morning around 10:00 A. Whenthe armada was about twenty miles southwest of Sombrero Reef, the lookoutsighted the Florida Keys. Unbeknownstto those onboard, less than 200 miles away, a fierce hurricane was roaringthrough the Bahamas heading straight towards the unsuspecting fleet. Dark cloud masses began to form to the southeast. The wind changed direction, now coming from the east as heavy swells began to toss the shipsabout. General Torres expressed his concern to the pilots and signaled the convoy to return to Havana, but by then it was already too late. By nightfall, the hurricane entered the Straits of Florida. At dawn on the morning of July 15.

Torrential rains, accompanied by howling 110 m. H winds and twenty-footse as pounded the helpless vessels driving them towards the treacherous and unforgiving reefs of the Florida Keys. By the time it was over, most of the ships had wrecked on the perilous reefs, scattered between Key Biscayne and Vaca Key. The item "1733 Fleet Shipwreck Mexico Silver 4-Reales Cob withCOA" is in sale since Thursday, January 31, 2019.

This item is in the category "Coins & Paper Money\Coins\ World\North & Central America\Mexico\Colonial (up to 1821)". The seller is "bellebrady_12" and is located in New Iberia, Louisiana. This item can be shipped to United States, Canada, Australia, Japan, Indonesia, Hong Kong, Bahamas, Singapore, Saudi arabia, United arab emirates, Bahrain, Malaysia, Chile, Colombia, Costa rica, Dominican republic, Panama, Trinidad and tobago, Guatemala, El salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, Viet nam.

Year: 1733
Denomination: 4 Reales
Certification: Marathon Shipwreck Coin Co.