[Joeaksa]

Originally posted by Hugh R
Got her a two Reale silver coin pendant that I picked up from the treasure hunter himself in Key West. It comes from the Spanish ship the "El Cazador" which went down in the Gulf in 1784. The loss of the ship caused Spain to default to France on the "Louisiana Purchase" and the U.S. picked up the default and bought the option on the purchase. If the ship hadn't sunk we might be speaking French or Spanish now (actually, I think we do speak Spanish). The treasure hunter picked up the rights to salvage from Lloyds of London after several other salvage companies went bankrupt. They tried diving bells, salvage subs and lots of $$$ stuff. He went in with a clam shell and went dredging and recovered several million by dropping and dragging.

BTW, Craig Boyd, the salvager sells these for $350 with the gold surround. They sell in Key West for double that for an original and close to his price for "replicas" that are cast from salvaged silver from the same era. Craig's website isn't real good, but you can contact him at bpkcaptc@aol.com or PM me and I'll give you his phone number. He's a real salvager, not one of these high fluff ones.

Was in Bermuda a while back and found some of the relics from the Atocha, the wreck that Mel Fisher pulled up. Bought some of the pieces of eight and a old musket ball. Make very nice gifts!

JoeA