This authentic piece of eight is from the shipwreck of La Capitana. La Capitana (aka the Jesus María de la Limpia Concepción) sunk in 1654 off Chanduy, Ecuador. The Capitana was the “captain’s ship”; hence the name.

It was the greatest loss ever endured by the Spanish South Seas (Pacific) Fleet. According to the official report, the wreck resulted in the loss of 3 million pesos of silver (2,212 ingots, 216 chests of coins, and 22 boxes of wrought silver), with contraband and private fortunes aboard bringing the total loss up to as much as 10 million pesos. This exceeded the total amount of silver pesos produced in Peru during an entire year making it a devastating financial loss for Spain. Overloaded with silver, the Capitana sank when the captain accidentally ran the ship onto the reefs south of the peninsula known as Punta Santa Elena which the captain mistakenly believed he had already sailed past.

For just shy of a decade thereafter, Spain worked to recover what was lost. In the 1650s and 60s, the main salvager of the Capitana was actually the ship's silvermaster, Bernardo de Campos, who was the one that overloaded the ship to begin with. After this, for over 340 years the wreck lay undisturbed on the ocean floor. Then it was rediscovered in the mid-1990s and salvage began. This shipwreck coin comes from these recent recovery efforts.

As an aside, the treasure recovered from the Capitana by the Spanish in 1654 was lost again on the Maravillas wreck of 1656, and some of those coins salvaged from the Maravillas were lost again in the wreck of the salvage vessel Madama do Brasil off Gorda Cay (Bahamas) in 1657.

This genuine piece of eight from a shipwreck that took place during the golden age of piracy is an awesome piece to add to any collection especially as it is certified authentic by PCGS.