The Legendary Pirate Era 22K Gold 2 Escudo "Doubloon" from the Kempen Hoard... now in an Heirloom  Pendant

Please Note: This is an authentic Spanish Gold Escudo Treasure Coin, and you will receive the exact pendant in the photographs and description.

Size including bezel: 1 1/8" Across, 1 1/2" Tall - about 1mm wider than the width of a quarter - SEE VIDEO

It began with the kind of faint metal-detector signal that was almost not worth digging...

One evening in 2021, a Dutch treasure hunter was making his way back to his car after an unsuccessful search in the Kempen region of the Netherlands. His detector gave a modest signal—the sort that usually meant a scrap of aluminum foil. He decided to dig anyway.

The first shovel went straight to the target. In the loose earth was something small, round and unmistakably yellow.

A gold coin.

He photographed it, hardly believing his luck, and started toward the car. He had taken only a few steps when his detector sounded again. Less than a meter away, an enormous silver coin emerged from the soil.

Then another coin appeared... and another.

Soon he was uncovering gold and silver treasure coins alongside fragments of the pottery vessel in which they had been buried centuries before. His jacket pockets filled. Then his finds pouch. Eventually he abandoned his shovel altogether, recovering much of the hoard with his bare hands and filling his backpack with treasure.

Among that extraordinary discovery were Spanish gold Escudos—the legendary gold coins remembered in pirate lore as Doubloons. Of the 250 coins discovered, only 16 were Spanish 22K gold doubloons.

This coin is one of them.

For centuries, Spanish gold Escudos traveled throughout an extraordinary world of kings and merchants, galleons and counting houses, soldiers, adventurers, privateers and pirates. Together with the great silver Pieces of Eight, they helped build the world we now know during the Age of Sail. But unlike most surviving Escudos, this coin comes with something exceptionally rare: documented provenance from the moment of its modern discovery.

Your Kempen Hoard Gold Doubloon Pendant

• Date circa: 1591-1594 - SEE NOTES BELOW
• Denomination: 2 Escudo "Doubloon"
• Coin weight: 6.7 grams 
• Mint: "S" Seville, Spain
• Rulers: Philip II 
• Assayer: "B" Juan Vicente Bravo
• Reverse (Back): The Jerusalem Cross
• Obverse: (Front): Shield of the King of Spain
• Coin Metal: 22K Gold
• Bezel Metal: 18K Gold - Luxury-width bezel
• Articulating Nautical Shackle Bail with a 6.2mm inside diameter large enough to fit a high quality gold chain
• Pendant Size including bezel: 1 1/8" Across, 1 1/2" Tall - Pendant about 1mm wider than the width of a quarter
  

Note from Robert: WOW! There are multiple things that make this coin very rare, valuable and collectable. Out of the 250 coins in the Kempen Hoard, only 16 were Spanish gold doubloons.

There were only eight 2 escudo coins found... this is one of them. 

It is in very good condition for a coin that was struck almost 500 years ago - if this coin could talk, the stories it could tell 

Beautiful full cross, sweet shield. In a comparison of Seville 2 escudos, there is enough mint and assayer marks visible to tell me this coin was struck between 1591and 1594. Only a partial "15" is visible for the date. The planchet isn't completely flat, and there are several spots on the coin where it looks like hammer strikes may have been used to knock down sharp edges. So the mint, denomination, and assayers marks and the date are only partially visible. On many Seville mint coins I have worked with from this time period we can't even see those details. So this is a cool piece. 

As assayer, Bravo was the mint official responsible for verifying the purity of the precious metal used in its coinage, and his personal mark appeared on the coins as evidence of that responsibility.

So if you want one of the rarest pieces available, with our Gold Standard documentation, don't wait too long to adopt this amazing piece.

(Please note: this information and much more will appear on your customized Certificate of Authenticity, including our full documentation package and provenance history.)

THE KEMPEN HOARD

Now known as the Kempen Hoard, the remarkable 2021 discovery contained 131 coins silver and gold coins from across Europe and the wider trading world. 

Spain, England and the Netherlands were particularly well represented, but the treasure also contained coins from Portugal, France, Hungary, the German and Italian states, and Spain's possessions in South America.

Its extraordinary range tells a story all its own.

The earliest coin in the hoard was an English gold Noble of Henry VI from the fifteenth century. The latest was a Zeeland Lion Daalder dated 1616. In all, the accumulated treasure spanned more than 150 years of monetary history—a remarkable reflection of the international trade networks that connected Europe and the Spanish world during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

The size and diversity of the fortune suggest that its original owner may have been a prosperous merchant.

And the timing is intriguing. In 1621, the Twelve Years' Truce between Spain and the Dutch Republic ended and warfare resumed. We cannot know why the Kempen treasure was concealed, but it is not difficult to imagine someone gathering accumulated wealth, placing gold and silver coins into a pottery vessel and burying it as danger approached.

Whoever hid it never came back.

For roughly four centuries, the coins remained beneath the earth.

Then came that faint signal in a Dutch field.

The Kempen Hoard was carefully documented, preserving the modern provenance of its individual coins as the treasure was dispersed. 

What makes the Kempen coins particularly special is the unusually vivid record of their rediscovery—the place, the circumstances, and even the finder’s own account of the moment the treasure emerged from the earth.

Kempen coins are different.

This Spanish gold Escudo is not merely a coin from the legendary age of the Doubloon. It is a piece of genuine buried treasure—with a modern story that begins at the precise moment this gold once again appeared from under the soil. 

(Please note: this information and much more will appear on your customized Certificate of Authenticity, including our full documentation package and provenance history.)

To see our complete collection of Spanish "Piece of Eight" treasure coins, click here>

Your Gold Doubloon Pendant Comes Complete with:

1. Our 100% Authentic Lifetime Guarantee
2. A Detailed, multi-page, Full Color, Photo Certificate of Authenticity (with your exact coin) Researched and Written by Robert Lewis Knecht
3. The Gold Doubloons of Spain and the New World by researched and written Robert  
4. "Pieces of Eight" Historic Brief
5. The Coins of the Lost Galleons Book
6. Treasure Hunters Gazette Booklet
7. Mini Museum display for when you are not wearing your treasure
8. A Treasure Jewelry Care Card