For sale is the most ornate beautiful 1681 Shipwreck Consolacion Spanish Silver 8 reale & 14K pendant you will find!  It is the creme dela creme of these style pendants.  The setting is 14k gold with 4 unidentified stones and 1 confirmed diamond surrounding a beautiful Spanish Silver 8 reale hammered coin.  The jeweler could not confirm if the stones were garnets or 4 different shades of ruby's. The stones appear to be root beer brown to me but under the sunlight appear red.   Certificate of authenticity included from the “Atlantic Treasure Coins Inc.  I spoke with the president of that company on 9-15-2022 by phone who confirmed what I am selling is genuine. You could do the same if these are any doubt about the piece of nautical history. Also if you examine the pictures and COE you will see without a doubt that these are the same coin.  As seen in the last picture it is hallmarked 14k.  It comes with an original COE from the Atlantic Treasure Coins Inc. I did hours of research confirming that the Atlantic Treasure Coins Inc. is a premier reseller of these amazing treasure starting in the early 2000's.  In all of the hundreds of photo matches available you will find not find one on the internet with these additional stones added to the pendant.  Its overall weight is 1.1 oz.  It is 2" wide and 2 3/8" tall. The story of the shipwreck, pirates and the later recovery is below. it is quite a story  This information was taken from a historical site on the web. 

 This coin has an exceptional Spanish cross still visible as most examples were worn away by the sea. Also the P mint mark, which stands for Villa Imperial de Potosí in the colonial period, and is the capital city and a municipality of the Department of Potosí in Bolivia and is also very visible. The pillars of Hercules are also still present on the back having not been worn flat as many of these coins fell victim to. 

 

Under agreement between local Ecuadorian entrepreneurs Roberto Aguirre and Carlos Saavedra and the government of Ecuador in 1997, while the exact name and history of the wreck was still unknown, and about 8,000 of the coins (all Potosí silver cobs) were subsequently sold at auction by Spink New York in December, 2001, as were know simply “Treasures from the ‘Isla de Muerto. This makes the coin in this pendant one of only approximately 8000. 

 

The pirate that caused this havoc was the famous English pirate captain Bartholomew Sharpe who gave chase to the Consolación, which forced the Spanish galleon to sink on a reef off Santa Clara Island (nicknamed “Isla El Muerto,” or Dead Man Island, due to the fact that its profile resembles a corpse in repose) In 1696, Sharp established himself on the island of St. Thomas in the Danish West Indies and retired from the pirate plundering.  By 1700, due to his debt, he tried to flee the island and the Danish colonial authorities. The attempt failed, and Sharp was confined to prison, where he died on 29 October 1702.

 

The silver mine that produced the silver for this coin is one of the most famous silver deposits in the worlds.  Cerro Rico de Potosí is the world's largest silver deposit and has been mined since the sixteenth century, producing up to 60,000 tons by 1996

 The Consolacion, a Spanish Armada del Sur (South Sea Armada) galleon, was lost in 1681 after striking a reef near Guayaquil, Ecuador. This famous shipwreck is one of the most compelling tales of pirates on the high seas! A delay in receiving silver coins from the mint in Potosi prevented the Santa Maria de la Consolacion from sailing with the rest of the armada from Callao, Peru. When the lone ship met pirates, the captain decided to ground the Consolacion on Santa Clara island, nicknamed Isla de Muerto (Island of the Dead), but struck a reef in the process.  After striking the bottom the officers, passengers and crew quickly entered various small boats and after setting fire to the galleon to prevent capture of the treasure, headed for the nearby rocky island.  The pirates chased and managed to capture many of the crew and passengers.  Furious about missing out on the treasure, the pirates beheaded any of the survivors he could find.  The pirates forced local fishermen to try and recover the treasure but were unsuccessful.  Some months later the Spanish Colonial authorities attempted a salvage operation but were also unsuccessful.  The site of the shipwreck was then abandoned and lay forgotten for 320 years until modern searchers discovered it in 1998.  This historical data was obtained from archives in Seville, Madrid, Lima and London by Marine Historian Robert F. Marx.

Each coin is unique in its shape and striking. The obverse bears 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", as well as the date "70" between the pillars for 1670. The reverse has a Jerusalem cross with castles and lions.