Ahoy Me Hearties! - 11/02/2013
From the seven seas to Hansons Derbyshire showroom – a pair
of Spanish coins recovered from the wreck of the H.M.S Association will be
offered in our forthcoming Antique & Collectors sale on 21st, 22nd
and 23rd February. The H.M.S
Association launched from Portsmouth Dockyard in 1697, and was in use at the
capture of Gibraltar, but lost at sea mysteriously in 1707. Described as the
‘greatest maritime disaster of the age,’ the wreck was left at the bottom of
the ocean until dredged up in 1967.
H.M.S Association held many treasures from the bottom of the
ocean, including two rare coins, the currency of pirates!! One is a 17th century ‘COB,’ a
Spanish currency. Unusually shaped, this coin details the history of Spain, as
this currency was cut crudely into shapes of an accurate weight, in preparation
for its melting down and using in jewellery etc. Often pillaged and plundered
for, this currency should entice many a landlubber to our Auction Centre in
Derbyshire.
Also uncovered from
the wreck was a sterling example of the infamous ‘piece of eight.’ The world’s first global currency, pieces of
eight, or eight reales were used across the vast Spanish Empire and often outside
it too – by buccaneers and seadogs no doubt!
The legacy of these coins endures, as they are often
associated with merciless battles of the Seven Seas. In Robert Louis Stevenson’s
Treasure Island, Long John Silver’s
parrot had been trained to cry out “Pieces of eight!” Furthermore, in Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, Crusoe sells his native companion Xury for sixty
pieces of eight; despite admitting “I was very loth to sell the poor boy’s
liberty, who had assisted me so faithfully in procuring my own.” The sole
association of pieces of eight and pirates thus grew, and now they are commonly
used in films such as the Pirates of the Caribbean pentalogy.
So shiver me timbers! – set sail to Hansons Auction Centre
on 21st, 22nd and 23rd February and purchase
these coins retrieved straight from Davy Jones’ Locker, with a swash-buckling
estimate of £30-£50
Read our article in The Daily Mail Online HERE
These Coins sold for £460
Elizabeth Bailey
