Sao Jose Shipwreck Coin Pirate Spanish Piece of Eight Authentic 4R SS Pendant

Description

The
authentic Spanish silver piece of eight
coin pendant pictured is the one you will receive. It is set into a handcrafted sterling silver pendant bezel. Your purchase includes the Certificate of Authenticity, polishing cloth, velvet pouch and gift box.
“S
ã
o Jos
é
Shipwreck”
Sailing in haste from Lisbon
in 1622
, the
S
ã
o Jos
é
was the Almiranta of a fleet on a King's mission. It was transporting royal treasure to Goa, the capital of Portugal's overseas empire. Traveling with the fleet was Francisco da Gama, the great grandson of legendary Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, en route to Goa, India, to reign as Viceroy.
After entering the Strait of Madagascar, the
S
ã
o Jos
é
was attacked by a combined force of Dutch and British East India Company ships.  They battled heroically for several days, but in the end, the
S
ã
o Jos
é
and the royal treasure were lost off the Mozambique coast.
In 2005, Arqueonautas Worldwide located the
S
ã
o Jos
é
off the coast of Mozambique and has since completed extensive research followed by a large area magnetometer survey. In partnership with the company's Mozambique counterpart Patrimonio Internacional SARL, a team of trained divers, archaeologists, conservation experts and specialized backup personnel excavated the remains of the shipwreck.
This type
of coin is unique in its shape and striking,
therefore no two of these coins will ever be exactly the same
. Yet, amazingly, for each denomination, the weight is almost exactly the same. They were hand-made, mostly by the indigenous Indians of the New World, cut from the end of a refined silver bar, then clipped,
heated, and hand struck between two crudely made engraved dies. They were then
filed to the exact requisite weight
of silver, according to the denomination.  They made them in denominations of 1/2, 1, 2, 4, and 8 Reales and they were called
"Pieces of Eight"
or Cob coins (meaning end of the bar)
.
Depending on the mint and the era, the obverse bears the Coat of Arms of the reigning Spanish King or the Pillars of Hercules over the waves of the sea with the Latin warning: PLUS ULTRA meaning, "Spain owns all that is beyond the oceans". The reverse has, in varying styles, a Jerusalem cross.