Pirate treasure 'pieces of eight' found on 300-year-old wreck

[Neil]

By Mark Duell

After three centuries under the sea, you can only imagine what stories these rare coins might hold.

Real-life pieces of eight are going under the hammer next Wednesday in Etwall, Derbyshire, after being recovered from the wreckage of a British ship used in the Capture of Gibraltar in 1704.

The rare coins were recovered from the HMS Association, which launched from Portsmouth in 1697 but sank in 1707 off the Isles of Scilly in what was called the 'greatest maritime disaster of the age'.
Rare coins: One of the finds was a 17th century Spanish 'Cob' (left) and another was a piece of eight (right)
 
The rare coins were recovered from the HMS Association, which launched from Portsmouth in 1697 but sank in 1707 off the Isles of Scilly in what was called the 'greatest maritime disaster of the age'
 
The Isles of Scilly is known for having one of the highest concentrations of shipwrecks in the country, with 530 registered wrecks around the archipelago, but there most famous is the Association.

The war, which involved various European countries including Britain, lasted from 1701 to 1714 and was fought over the feared joining of Spain and France under one monarch.

The HMS Association sank in 1707 when Captain Edmund Loades was returning from the Mediterranean with 20 other ships which entered the mouth of the English Channel.
She struck the Outer Gilsto
ne Rock off the Isles of Scilly, and lost her entire crew of 800 men. It was believed that the ship had lost its way due to navigational errors.
.The wreck was left at the bottom of the ocean until it was dredged up in 1967, and held many treasures -  including the two pictured rare coins, which were the currency of pirates.

One was a 17th century Spanish ‘Cob’. This unusually-shaped coin details the history of Spain, as the currency was cut crudely into shapes of an accurate weight in preparation for its melting down and usage in jewellery.

Also uncovered from the wreck was an example of the infamous ‘piece of eight’, which was known as the world’s first global currency, used across the Spanish Empire and often outside as well.
The legacy of these coins endures, and in Robert Louis Stevenson’s famous novel Treasure Island, Long John Silver’s parrot had been trained to cry out ‘pieces of eight’.

In Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe, a boy is sold for 60 pieces of eight, despite Crusoe admitting: ‘I was very loth to sell the poor boy’s liberty, who had assisted me so faithfully in procuring my own.’

A spokesman for Hanson Auctioneers & Valuers said: 'The sole association of pieces of eight and pirates has grown, and now they are commonly used in films such as the Pirates of the Caribbean.'

The piece of eight and Spanish 'Cob' coins are only expected to fetch up to £50 together, with the auctioneer telling MailOnline that this was a reflection of the price a wholesaler is likely to pay.

[WeCan-Octavian]

The stuff dreams are made of

[Richie sixpence]

Very nice indeed 

[probono]

That's the kind of 'real pirate money' my boy would like. He costs me a fortune

[glynkid]

thanx for a very interesting post  there must be loads of wealth  to be found on the ocean bed