1765 2 Reales MO M Pillar Coin Silver Shipwreck Coin from the El Cazador (NGC Encapsulated)

2 Reales Pillar Coin from the El Cazador Spanish shipwreck. These "pillar-type" reale pieces went out of circulation in 1771, when Charles III redesigned the coin to feature his image. The two pillars on the obverse represent the Pillars of Hercules-the ancient name for the rock formations that flank the entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar, once thought to be the End of the World-and the two globes, the Old and New Worlds. The inscription utraque unum derives from a passage in 2 Ephesians in which St. Paul suggests that Jews and Gentiles are both one. The meaning here is that Spain and her colonies are one nation, under God, indivisible.

The reverse of the "pillar-type" coin is the royal seal of Castille and Léon, represented by castles and lions. The pillar coins comprise less than 1 percent of the treasure found on El Cazador; pillar coins of this fineness are rarer still. On August 2, 1993 fifty miles off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico, a small fishing trawler discovered coins in their fishing net. At a depth of 100 meters they had uncovered the final resting place of the long lost Spanish brig, El Cazador, and its treasure.

The El Cazador (meaning The Hunter in English) was a Spanish brig that sank in the Gulf of Mexico in 1784. On October 20, 1783 it was sent by Charles III of Spain on a mission to bring much-needed hard currency to the Spanish colony of Louisiana. The ship sailed to Veracruz, Mexico, where it was loaded with approximately 450,000 Spanish reales. King Carlos III enlisted his most trusted captain, Gabriel de Campos y Pineda, to captain the ship. On January 11, 1784, it sailed for New Orleans, and was never heard from again. Spain's attempts to locate the ship were unsuccessful and in June 1784, El Cazador was officially listed as missing at sea.

Then, on August 2, 1993, the trawler Mistake, while fishing in the Gulf of Mexico fifty miles south of New Orleans, hung its net on a snag. The trawler was captained by Jerry Murphy and its home port was Pasaguola, Mississippi. When the crew hoisted the net and dumped the contents on the deck, they found the net was filled with silver coins. The coins bore markins from the Spanish mint in Mexico, along with the date 1783.

Due to the uniqueness of each item, please refer to the photos provided in this auction. We offer high resolution images of each item rather than a written description of condition.

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