Those very coins that were thought to be lost forever in 1784 are now available for purchase at Island Companies’ Island Treasures store.
A certain mystique and romance surrounds antique coins salvaged from shipwrecks, due as much to the manner in which they were lost as to the story of their rediscovery, and are of interest not only to collectors but to anyone with even a passing interest in history.
Island Treasures in The Island Plaza stocks a variety of antique coins from Europe and the New World, which date back hundreds, if not thousands, of years and all bear their own certificate of authenticity.
The bottom of the Caribbean Sea is littered with the ancient wrecks of ships that ran afoul of reefs, hurricanes and pirate attacks. Most of the time, little attention is paid to the circumstances surrounding a ship’s sinking, their stories lost to the ocean’s depths - and so it might have been for the Spanish warship El Cazador, had the wreckage not been found in 1993.
This particular ship had been carrying a cargo of freshly minted silver coins bound for the port of New Orleans when she vanished without trace in 1784. Had El Cazador made it to her destination, the maps we know today might have looked very different. The sinking of this one ship changed the course of history in the United States and indeed Spain and France.
Those very coins that were thought to be lost forever in 1784 are now available for purchase at Island Companies’ Island Treasures store.
Picture the scene: Spain was holding on to the Territory of Louisiana – a vast area stretching from the Mississippi to the Rockies and including New Orleans - by the skin of its teeth in the late 18th century. The economy was in dire straits. Paper currency was being devalued, counterfeit money was in common circulation and the King of Spain, Carlos II, desperately needed to get cash, in the form of hard currency, to the capital, New Orleans, in order to shore up a foundering economy and pay his soldiers and government officials, if control of the colony were to be maintained.
He therefore ordered the war brig El Cazador be loaded up with 450,000 silver reales – the equivalent of 19 tonnes of silver - fresh from the Mexico mint, and transported from Veracruz to New Orleans. Had the ship arrived with the cargo intact, it would have been enough to resolve Spain’s troubles in the region.
To this day it is not known if she was attacked by pirates (who at the time ruled the high seas and targeted ships with exactly this kind of cargo), encountered fierce storms or sunk for some other reason, but her failure to reach the Spanish colony with the necessary haul of silver, meant that the Spanish king was obliged to cede the vast Louisiana Territory to Napoleon of France.
But France had troubles of its own to deal with: war with Britain was looming and slaves in Haiti were rebelling. Within three years of acquiring the territory they were forced to concede it to the United States in exchange for a paltry $15 million. The handover immediately doubled the size of the United States and established the foundations of modern day America.
If El Cazador had made the journey unscathed, much of the southern United States might have remained in Spanish hands for many years to come. Who knows what that area might have been today had that one ship not been lost?
This entire episode of history could have been forgotten entirely had one Jerry Murphy, captain of a fishing trawler ironically named The Mistake, not snagged what at first appeared to be lumps of rock in its nets. Closer inspection revealed the rocks to actually be stacks of coins that had fused together over the course of years submerged below the sea.
Fast forward a few years and the wreck was identified, her cargo salvaged and cleaned and eventually distributed to retailers of antiquities.
The aptly named store, Island Treasures in The Island Plaza, currently has a large selection of these very silver reales in stock, in addition to a variety of Greek and Dutch coins, some of which date back more than two thousand years. Depending on personal preference Island Companies’ jewellers can make coins up into rings, pendants or other pieces of jewellery.
El Cazador’s silver coins embody a significant episode in the history of the United States and make a wonderful keepsake for any American interested in their country’s heritage and, because of their story, are an ideal way to pique a child’s interest in history. The coins are in excellent condition, with the faces and dates clearly visible and each has been independently graded.
Historians and collectors have long been passionate about antique coins, but in an age of economic uncertainty when the price of precious metals is spiralling, people are increasingly purchasing such items as security against inflation.
Because Island Companies purchased these coins prior to the worldwide economic downturn they are able to sell them at 40 percent less than they retail for in the United States – starting from only US$139.00. These coins make a wonderful memento, gift or something to hand down to future generations. WH