El Cazador Coin

[Hugh R]

Just bought this for my daughter. I bought one for my wife about 9 years ago. Its from the treasure hunter who found the ship. As I understand it, the El Cazador was shipping silver and gold from Mexico to Spain and it sunk. The money was for the Louisiana Purchase and because it sunk, in 1781, the USA got to buy the Louisiana Purchase from France instead of Spain. A 1735 a piece of history.

[crustychief]

That is beautiful!

[Moses]

Wow...

[targa911S]

THAT is very cool Hugh!

[targa911S]

Yeah I was just looking at that. You did good on a lot of levels.

[Paco Anton]

Hugh.

My Government called and said that want the coin back. You know, with all the world crisis and that we need all the money we can get, so please send the coin ASAP.

Now more seriously.

The king in the anverse in Charles III, called "the best mayor of Madrid" as he used most of the money coming from the Americas to improve our capital and build magnificent new buildings.

On the reverse the Spainsh coat of arms is remarkably the same that we currently use. The columns represent the Straits of Gibraltar while the different images inside represent the different kingdoms that united in the 15th century to form Spain.

The text reads in latin "Charles the 3rd, king of Spain and the Indies by the grace of god"

Nice present!!!!!

[Hugh R]

Paco, that is very cool. Thanks.

[LWJ]

Charles the 3rd has a much worse profile that I do! Huge nose, weak chin, double chin. Yikes!

Larry

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by LWJ

Charles the 3rd has a much worse profile that I do! Huge nose, weak chin, double chin. Yikes!

Larry

Yea, and if they make a movie about him they will cast George Clooney and the king.

Most monarchs were not in power because of their looks.

[Hugh R]

So one member PM'd me and also has apparently bought one as well. Hopefully he will post a pic of his treasure. You can do a search and find two Reale coins of various ages for sale apparently cheap, but the condition and age of the coin is everything. It also depends on the ship that sank or if it is just a coin from that era. Not including the surround 14K gold of the coin. I thought I overpaid, but looking at the condition of the coin, history (sunken ship) and surround, let alone that I bought it for my wife from the guy who found them, I feel OK. When I bought the first one about nine years ago I balked at the price and the treasurer hunter told me to stroll the jewelry shops of Key West, which is where I was when I bought it from him, and see the same items that he had sold them. 2x to 3x markup!

[azasadny]

Cool!!!

[fred cook]

About 15 or 20 years ago I bought one of the 8 Reale coins from the Nuestra Senora de Atocha (Mel Fisher's wreck find) for my wife as a Christmas present. Had it mounted in a white gold surround and put on a white gold chain. The older coin (minted about 1620) is a more irregular shape as it was stamped from a "cob" which was simply a piece of silver cut from a bar. Once the coin was minted and weighed, small pieces of silver were cut off to make it the correct weight. Whew! Talk about labor intensive! Anyway, she loved the coin/necklace and wears it often. I like to tell people that I wanted her to have something older than she is! Of course, I get a head slap every time that happens. It's amazing how well preserved these coins are after 250-350 years in the ocean.

[byfdinky]

Thanks Hugh for the lead on the coin!

Received it today. Pics taken from Iphone, coin looks great. Great history on this one.

[Hugh R]

Nice, better pic please. That coin looks like gold but it is actually silver like the one I posted pics of. I Pm'd you about alternative sales places, but as you no doubt saw, Craig sells quality which is the price point on this stuff. Yeah, you can find them for less, but the quality is what dictates price. He called me, before he mailed it to you and told me that based on my referral, he would mail it to you and expect you to pay him upon receipt. After all, he knew NOTHING about you other than my name. Old school trust stuff. Isn't it nice?

[byfdinky]

No Doubt Craig is a class act. I am totally pleased with the quality of this coin. I'll get the SLR out for a better pic.

Yes that's old school trust.

[Joe Bob]

Paco, so....does the Spanish Navy wave to the Brits up on the Rock as they sail by thru the straits? I hear you guys are STILL irked about that....what was it? 1704?

[Paco Anton]

Joe Bob.

Yes, the Gibraltar issue is still hot here in Spain and will continue to be so for generations to come.

I know I am 100% biased but it does not make sense in the 21st century that one country owns a part of another country's territory. Besides, when the British took Gibraltar they were supposedly helping a faction in a civil war (Spanish Succession War), so not even at war with Spain.

Now the funny fact is that we own two cities in Moroccan territory (look up Ceuta and Melilla). Oír excuse not to give them back is that we owned them before Morocco was even organized as a country.

I once read that usually countries consider their natural boundaries the ones they had at the moment of their largest expansion. So please give back the keys to California, Texas and Florida together with Hugh's coin

[Hugh R]

What, Bill gets to keep his coin? THAT's NOT FAIR!

[Hugh R]

Two more people PM'd me about how to get in contact with Craig, the treasurer hunter who sells these.

[craigster59]

Post the link up here and see if you can get Craig to give you your own coin as "commission".