Description:
This is a genuine silver coin salvaged from the Lucayan Beach Shipwreck, which sank in 1628 off Grand Bahama Island. The wreck site was accidentally discovered in 1964 in just ten feet of water 1,300 yards from the Lucayan Beach Hotel. Approximately 10,000 silver cob coins were recovered with the latest being dated 1628. In the 1990s another salvage excavation of the Lucayan Beach Shipwreck recovered more coins and artifacts. This Spanish two reales is a very rare denomination that was found on the shipwreck site as the vast majority of coins were four and eight reales from the colonial Mexico mint.
The mystery of this lost ship's true identity has never been completely solved. However, because of the latest dated coins of 1628, popular opinion associates the Lucayan Beach Shipwreck with a marauding Dutchman named Piet Heyn. On September 8, 1628, Piet Heyn surprised the Spanish fleet returning from Mexico in Matanzas Bay, Cuba, capturing 16 ships and an enormous bounty of gold and silver treasure. Soon after, on his way back home to the Netherlands, Piet Heyn reported losing two of the captured ships. It seems almost certain that the Lucayan Beach Shipwreck was part of the captured Spanish fleet.
The obverse side of this shipwreck coin features a Jerusalem cross with castles and lions in the quarters and the reverse depicts the Philip IV coat of arms. Spanish coins, known as "cobs", that circulated in this epic era were hand struck from dies and cut to weight, making each a one-of-a-kind piece of history.
