Santa Maria de la Consolation Shipwreck (Isla de Muerto or Isle of the dead) - 1 Reales - Dated: 1666

Denomination: 1 Reales                                                            

Weight: 3.2gm                         

Assayer: "E" Antonio de Erqueta (1652-1679)                           

Mint: Potosi, Peru

Reign: Carlos II                                                                           

Date: 1666

Mount: 14K Gold

Description: 1 Reales Silver Cob. Obverse: Pillar and Wave design. Deep strike with date of 1666 visible along with Ming mark and Assayer initial. Partial plus ultra visible across the middle. Reverse: Deeply struck Jerusalem cross with lions and castles visible in 4 quadrants. Denomination "1" visible below king ordinal. Ordinal clearly visible.  

History: This coin was a part of the treasure of the new world being shipped home to Spain. A delay in getting the coins from the mint in Potosi prevented the Santa Maria De La Consolacion from sailing with the rest of the Armada from Callao, Chile. Intended to be part of the Spanish “South Seas Fleet” of 1681, which left Lima’s port of Callao in April, the Consolación ended up traveling alone. At the Gulf of Guayaquil, off modern-day Ecuador, the Consolación encountered English pirates, led by Bartholomew Sharpe, who forced the Spanish galleon to sink on a reef off Santa Clara Island (later nicknamed “Isla de Muerto,” or Dead Man’s Island). 

Before the pirates could get to the ship, the crew set fire to her and tried to escape to the nearby island without success. Angered by the inability to seize the valuable cargo of the Consolación, Sharpe’s men killed the Spaniards and tried in vain to recover the treasure through the efforts of local fishermen. Spanish attempts after that were also fruitless, so the treasure of the Consolación sat undisturbed until the late 1990's.

Cob-Isla010