1796 8 Reale "Spanish piece of eight"

1796 8 Reale "Spanish piece of eight"

A MUST FOR ANY COLLECTOR - OUR PRICE IS NEGOTIABLE

Good Quality 1796 Silver 8 Reales Spanish Colonial Carolus IIII Mexico Mint Assayer FM Nice old silver coin with a good strike, an excellent example of a very sort after coin.

These coins are also known as Spanish "Pieces of Eight" and they circulated freely in the many New World colonies of Spain such as Bolivia, Chile, Columbia, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru as well as many other countries.

Obverse Description: Bust of Spanish Monarch Carlous IIII facing Right
Obverse Legend: ·CAROLUS·IIII·DEI·GRATIA·1796

Reverse Description: Crown above Spanish Arms within Shield between support of the Pillars of Gibraltar or Hercules.
Reverse Legend: HISPAN*ET*IND*REX*ME* 8R*F*M

Specification: 26.67 g, .896 fine silver.

Mexico 1796 Silver 8 Reales Ex Rapid shipwreck KM# 108 good Fine

Obverse: Laureate bust of Charles III to right, legend around, date below.

Reverse: Coronate shield within two pillars, legend around.

Commonwealth Government Artefact ID: 53072

This is incredible value for such a scarce ex-wreck coin.

The Rapid was an early 19th-century American vessel that wrecked on Ningaloo Reef (NW WA coast) in 1811. It was bound for Canton (Guangzhou) in China, and had a cargo of 280,000 Spanish silver dollars when it sank.
Not only was this an incredible sum of money in those days (the weight of this silver was just shy of 8 tonnes), the survival story of the men on the Rapid is one of hardship and endurance.
In addition to that, the discovery of the wreck in 1978 has been described as being one of the most incredible finds in Australian maritime history.
The Ningaloo Reef is the world's largest fringing coral reef, stretching for 280 kilometres from Quobba to North West Cape in the Gascoyne Region of Western Australia. Since the early 17th century trading vessels have skirted along the cape as they sailed north up the coast of Western Australia, initially Point Cloates and the Exmouth peninsular was charted as an island and was only discovered to be mainland Australia in 1819 by Phillip Parker King who charted the southern reaches of Exmouth Gulf. Numerous wrecks have been discovered off the reef over the last three centuries mainly concentrated around the area of Point Cloates and north of Coral Bay. Most discovered wrecks are trading barques or more modern steam freighters however countless undiscovered wrecks are spread across the whole length of the reef, from lost pearling luggers, a World War II submarine chaser, 19th century sailing vessels and aircraft undiscovered in the Gulf from military operations during the World War II era.