A 1700s Disaster Brings Collectors Modern-Day Treasure

Starting with Christopher Columbus' journey in 1492, Spain suddenly had access to a wide variety of both precious and practical materials found in the New World. This brought both literal treasures such as gold and silver as well as more mundane, yet fascinating, treasures such as new food products.

With the huge influx of emeralds, silver, and more, Spain became enormously wealthy and quickly developed a system of sea transport. A system of convoys was created with the goal of safely transporting these many treasures to their final destination, avoiding pirates and other attackers to transport this booty to the homeland. Called the West Indies Fleet, this has been considered the first permanent transatlantic trade route in history.

A piece of this history can be purchased in Heritage Auctions' August World Coin Auction #3085. The 1715 Treasure Fleet was a convoy of Spanish ships returning to Spain from the new world, laden with treasures of silver and gold. A hurricane struck that tragically destroyed 11 of the 12 ships, killing an estimated 1,500 soldiers. What was a disaster in its day is considered a fascinating event in world history today, having created many collectible coins and objects that were salvaged from the shipwrecks and can be owned by collectors.

One such coin is the 1713 Cob 4 Escudos gold coin that Heritage is auctioning at the ANA. This can be your very own piece of shipwreck history, looking almost as lovely as the day it was made, just 2 years before it sunk (and about 300 years ago now!).

If all of this talk of Spanish treasure and pirates gets you interested in the topic, then the above piece is not your only opportunity to purchase a treasure of your own in Sale 3085! There are both other great Spanish coins of the 1700s and also other treasure ship pieces that will cross the auction block

To read the complete lot description, see:
Philip V gold Cob 4 Escudos 1713 MXo-J MS63 NGC, M...(https://coins.ha.com/itm/mexico/world-coins/philip-v-gold-cob-4-escudos-1713-mxo-j-ms63-ngc-/p/3085-57012.s)