$ 1,270.00 USD Size Guide
Please Note: This is an authentic 1715 Fleet Shipwreck Treasure Coin, and you will receive the exact pendant in the photographs and description.
FOR PENDANT SIZE SEE COINS DETAILS BELOW
One of the most famed treasure fleets of all time, the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet yields some of the most stunning examples of early 1700's silver Spanish "cob" shipwreck treasure coins.
Crudely minted cob coins - short for cabo de barra, or "end of the bar," each has its own unique shape - and combined with the sea wear and stunning patinas, each is a small work of art!
What connection does the 1715 Fleet have to Pirates: These "pieces of 8" are also the famous coins of pirate legend and lore. The Spanish quickly began salvaging their fleet. But pirate Henry Jennings amassed a crew and attacked Spanish salvage camp in early 1716. They made off with upwards of 120,000 pieces of 8. Obviously, this coin survived that raid, and lay hidden for hundreds of years on the ocean bottom, to be salvaged only a few years ago. Blackbeard was also prowling the Florida coast Caribbean at this time and drinking rum with Jennings!
Note from Robert: Beautiful deeply struck cross and shape. Nice heavy full weight coin, removed form the inside of a "clump" of coins... the remains of a treasure chest.
You can see on the top a flat spot where they knocked down a sharp edge with a hammer so the coin wouldn't slice through the canvas backs they transported them in down from Mexico City (over 5,000 feet elevation) to Veracruz, where the galleons picked them up and took them to Havana. Pretty cool!
Frank Vaughn Collection: Cape Canaveral is at the northern edge of where the 1715 Fleet sank. This 1715 Fleet piece is from our Frank Vaughn collection! It is exclusive to Cannon Beach Treasure Company. Mr. Vaughn was General Manager for the Bendix Launch Support Division in charge of NASA's Saturn V Crawler/Transporter program during the Apollo missions, including Apollo 11 and Apollo 13.
During that time, renowned Spanish archive researcher, the late Jack Haskins was the Bendix Corporation's pilot. Jack had taught himself how to read the complex, archaic Spanish shipwreck legajos (files) located in the Spanish archives in Seville. He used that information to search for the 1715 Fleet ships, among many others. Or course, Mr. Vaughn flew with Jack many times, and was an original investor in the Real Eight Company when salvage of the Fleet was just getting started in the 1960s.
Working with these coins reminds me of my early years diving on, filming and writing about historic shipwrecks. I featured Jack in my first documentary, The Treasure Experience, and while he was a very quiet and private man, he always had time to answer my many questions.
For more on the 1715 Fleet, click here>
To see our complete collection of Spanish "Piece of Eight" treasure coins, click here>
