potosi-eight-reales-dated-1654-recovered-from-the-i-maravillas-i-shipwreck
Lot 2119
Potosi Eight Reales Dated 1654, Recovered from the Maravillas Shipwreck
Lot Details & Additional Photographs
(20.12g), struck under Philip IV, with small 3-digit "654" beneath the cross and "54" between the pillars.

Private North Carolina Collection

In 1656 the Maravillas was leading a convoy carrying an immense treasure of silver coin from the New World to Spain. Already trying to navigate severe weather, the Maravillas was struck by another ship near Grand Bahama Island and subsequently sank with hundreds of lives lost.

Clear devices and dates with attractive light and dark contrasts; the flan is remarkably solid, though somewhat uneven as expected having been submerged in the Atlantic for over 300 years.