1621 8 Reales Atocha Shipwreck Potosi Mint w/ CoA
1621 8 Reales Atocha Shipwreck Potosi Mint w/ CoA
The 1621 8 Reales Atocha shipwreck coin:
In the fall on September 22nd 1622 King Philip IV’s fleet was off the coast of Florida in a intense storm when they hit a reef and sank. Many people died and an immense amount of treasure was lost to the ocean. After nearly 400 years the shipwreck was found by Mel Fisher in 1985.
It is likely that many pieces from the wreck have still not been recovered and are lying on the ocean floor undiscovered.
Coins in the time period were very crudely struck and often odd shapes and sizes even for different denominations. The coins were made by hand cutting crude coin blanks from poorly crafted silver bars and hand hammering the dies into the blanks. This minting process often left strikes weak, off-center & missing details. he most important part of producing these coins to the Spanish were the weight, assayer and mint marks.
The obverse of the coins have the crowned Spanish shield with the mint
mark and assayer on the left side of the shield stacked on top of one another
respectively.
The reverse of these coins have the quartered arms of Castille-
Leon and date above (if visible). Fully dated coins from the Atocha are
seemingly rare to come across as well as a few different mints. Most of the
mints found on the Atocha were from new world colonies.
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