Piece of 8

J

JoelAG

New Member
Thought you all would get a kick out of this. While at the Children's Museum, there was a girl in a open window in a lab coat, working on items from a "pirate ship". They believe the Piece of 8 was Spanish, minted in Mexico, made for King Phillip the 5th, based on the crests. They think the ship was Captain Kidd's and it sank (or was deliberately scuttled), in the Caribbean and the coins were in the water for 288 years.

It weighted a little less (based on feel) than 1oz. Pieces of 8 were all supposed to weight the same, but they didn't care about shape. She let me hold it.

front_zpseedd4d49.jpg

back_zpsf1aa982e.jpg


Then she showed me this. It's about 9lbs of coins, all fuzed together. They intend to leave them that way. You can see whole pieces of 8, and the smaller 1/8 coins in there too.

lump_zps568a8cd3.jpg


I thought it was pretty cool.
 
The 3rd picture looks like it was taken from Predator's armor. :) Interesting stuff.
 
Fascinating! Thanks for posting that.
I love historical coins. :) :) :)
 
boyracer said:
nice pics. Any idea why the coins fused together - is that the effect of being in the ocean so long?
Click to expand...

Yep, concretion.
 
Nice post.. Nice images.. Nice hap of reales

8 reales

Cut up (divided) 8 reales = 1 reales or 2 reales or 4 reales or pieces of 8
 
So, is this one of those tragic boating accidents I have heard about here when you lost all your silver?
 
JoelAG said:
Thought you all would get a kick out of this. While at the Children's Museum, there was a girl in a open window in a lab coat, working on items from a "pirate ship". They believe the Piece of 8 was Spanish, minted in Mexico, made for King Phillip the 5th, based on the crests. They think the ship was Captain Kidd's and it sank (or was deliberately scuttled), in the Caribbean and the coins were in the water for 288 years.

It weighted a little less (based on feel) than 1oz. Pieces of 8 were all supposed to weight the same, but they didn't care about shape. She let me hold it.

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w302/JAWeinberg/Piece of 8/front_zpseedd4d49.jpg
http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w302/JAWeinberg/Piece of 8/back_zpsf1aa982e.jpg

Then she showed me this. It's about 9lbs of coins, all fuzed together. They intend to leave them that way. You can see whole pieces of 8, and the smaller 1/8 coins in there too.

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w302/JAWeinberg/Piece of 8/lump_zps568a8cd3.jpg

I thought it was pretty cool.
Click to expand...
That is fricken awesome!!
 
The coin may have felt a bit light due to it being "clipped."
It was a common practice back then to clip a little metal from the coin before passing it on therefore the coins gradually got lighter the longer they circulated.
I have a few ancient and Medieval coins which are light and show evidence of clipping..
A fascinating part of their history.
 
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