BEST OFFER~4-1679 ANACS CERTIFIED 1/2/4/8 REALES POTOSI Start Price USD 1,449.00 Current Price USD 1,449.00 Time Left - Bid Count 0 Buy It Now Price - Reserve Price - Start Time Saturday, October 25, 2008 End Time Monday, November 24, 2008 Location Jefferson Hills Boro-Pittsburgh See more about 'BEST OFFER~4-1679 ANACS CERTIFIED 1/2/4/8 REALES POTOSI' Description Beautiful Lost Treasure Coins From 1681 Ship Wreck. These Coins Are From The Potosi Mint In Ecuador. Thay Are In The Denominations As Follows. 1679P One Real In VF-25 Condition, 1679P Two Real In VF-20 Condition, 1679-P Four Real In F-12 Condition, 1679-P Eight Real In VF-20 Condition. All Coins Are Certified By ANACS.The Name Of The Ship That Sank Was The "Consolacion". EXTREMELY RARE ~ I have yet to see a certified set like this on eBay.Check out my other items! Be sure to add me to your favorites list!Sign up for my email newsletters by adding my eBay Store to your Favorites On Mar-02-08 at 14:18:45 PST, seller added the following information:A friend of mine forwarded the following information to me about this set - I do not know of the accuracy or where this information is from, however, it seems to be rather informative:8 Reales (cob) = 27.3 grams [ 0.96 ounces ] ( also known as Pieces of Eight ) 4 Reales (cob) = 13.65 grams [ 0.48 ounces ] 2 Reales (cob) = 6.825 grams [ 0.24 ounces ] 1 Real (cob) = 3.4125 grams [ 0.12 ounces ]The Santa Maria de   La Consolacion “Pirate related Ship,” A Spanish galleon lost off Santa Clara Island, Ecuador in 1681, carried silver cobs.New Type Pillars and Waves ( 1652 -1773 )Phillip IIIISANTA CLARA, Ecuador (29 Oct 2003) -- Six pirate ships closed in on the Spanish treasure ship the Santa Maria De La Consolacion as the galleon sailed up the Pacific coast of South America, slow and bloated with silver, gold and gems mined from the mountains of Peru or looted from the remnants of the once-mighty Incas.The viceroy of Peru had ordered the ship to set sail against the wishes of its captain, Juan de Lerma, and despite rumors of pirates prowling the waters.It was a fateful decision. But the Santa Maria had to reach Panama in time for its passengers and priceless cargo from the Royal Mint of Lima to catch the Spanish fleet before it left on its annual journey across the Atlantic.The time was 1681, a period of fierce rivalry between Spain and England, and Capt. Bartholomew Sharpe, an infamous buccaneer, was on the hunt for ships to plunder.What happened when the Santa Maria crossed paths with Sharpe was so bloody that to this day Ecuadorians call the tiny island of Santa Clara "El Muerto" -- the dead man -- although the reason for the name has long been lost to memory.Sometime in the mid-1990s, two brothers walking along Santa Clara's sandy shores spotted something in the surf. It was black and crusty, like a couple of small flat stones stuck together. One of the brothers, giving the objects little thought, stuck them in his pocket.What the brothers had discovered was the key to the lost Spanish galleon's treasure: The black stones turned out to be pieces of eight, the stuff of pirate movies and romantic fiction.Now the hoard, worth an estimated $20 million to $100 million, is waiting to be excavated from the shark-infested Bay of Guayaquil, about 30 miles off the coast of Ecuador.The fishermen's' discovery caught the attention of Roberto Aguiire, the wealthy owner of a tuna fishery, a man with ships, helicopters and enough time and money to bankroll a treasure hunt.Aguiire paid the brothers for their information, then spent two years procuring permits for a salvage operation from the Ecuadorian government. Meanwhile, divers he hired recovered thousands of coins scattered across the sea floor.But while Aguiire set wheels in motion to recover the treasure, questions remained about exactly how much loot the ship had carried and whether it was worth the trouble and expense of salvaging.What needed to be done immediately was to establish the name of the ship, search old manifests and try to establish exactly what had been on board.But where to start looking?'Devil Pirates'Aguiire hired treasure hunter Joel Ruth of Indialantic, a marine archaeologist and nautical historian with a specialty in dating and restoring Spanish coins.A bookish, 50-year-old diver with an African parrot named Euclid, Ruth also has a knack for mixing caustic chemicals that can erase centuries of grime from ancient coins.It was Ruth, who through dogged, monotonous research discovered the name of the ship.He found a cryptic footnote on a copy of an old seafarer's map."At this Island in this year of 1681 was cast away a rich ship."The island was Santa Clara -- El Muerto.Ruth suspected that the reference to "a rich ship" referred to the Santa Maria De La Consolacion. The date was an invaluable clue, but he needed to find more maps and charts to confirm his suspicions.He turned to a noted author and expert, Sir Robert Marx of Brevard County. Marx, a former U.S. Marine, was knighted by both England and Spain for his work as a nautical archaeologist. He has written more than 800 scientific and popular articles and 50 books.More digging produced another reference:"In the year 1681 Captain Sharpe gave chase to a ship in this sea and thee was lost on fowle ground near S. Clara in her 100,000 pieces of eight besides Plate and other goods of value."Bingo!The Capt. Sharpe mentioned was none other than the infamous Bartholomew Sharpe. British and Spanish accounts of Sharpe's exploits survive, including what happened near Santa Clara.Sharpe gave chase to the Santa Maria -- 440 tons, with 26 iron and bronze cannons.Its captain, Lerma, tried to reach safe harbor but the "Devil Pirates," as the beleaguered skipper referred to them, gained on his ship.In the 17th century there was no such thing as taking prisoners."There were no POW camps or prisoner exchanges. It was the number-one incentive not to get caught by pirates," Marx said.The Santa Maria struck rocks or a reef. It couldn't move and took on water. The crew and passengers scrambled into small boats and headed to Santa Clara island. Lerma, not wanting the treasure to fall into the hands of the British, ordered his ship set on fire.         It burned and sank with its treasure, infuriating the pirates. They retaliated by beheading the crew and passengers -- an estimated 350 people.Sharpe's men later forced some native fishermen to dive for the wreckage. But after sharks devoured one of the divers, no one else would dive.Still, the location of the wreck was the kind of information that was noted on old maps. Ruth's research turned up repeated references to the Santa Maria until 1821."People have been looking for this wreck for centuries," Ruth said. Even though the general area was known, it was never enough to pinpoint the wreck, he said."It's a big ocean, and they didn't have GPS [global positioning satellites] back then," Ruth quipped.'It's the galleon'For six years, Aguiire's divers have scoured the sea floor. An arctic current makes diving in the water like swimming in an ice bath."The oysters are delicious too," Ruth said. "But that's not what we go down for. We're looking for anything with a line, a geometrical shape. Nature doesn't work in squares. Squares and right angles can mean a wooden box or an ingot."As of Saturday, more than 15,000 coins have been found on the sea bottom in a milelong, curved path resembling the "swoosh" of a Nike sneaker.They also have found pottery, ancient muskets and signal guns. Among the discoveries was a crate of 320-year-old iron shoes for mules. Ruth keeps one on his dinner table.Before the ship was discovered last week, Aguiire was getting ready to give up, letting his permits expire. His divers were spending more time doing maintenance on the dive boats than on as treasure hunting.The breakthrough came in December when an Ecuadorian fisherman flagged the divers, asking for help, Ruth said. His net was caught on something in 30 feet of water.A diver who went down couldn't believe what he saw -- massive wooden beams, showing signs of having been charred, and covered by centuries of sand and seaweed."It's the galleon -- the whole galleon just sitting there, exposed," Ruth said.The diver videotaped the scene and took a sample of the wood about the size of a loaf of bread.Ruth hired a lab to check the age of the wood."I was skeptical," Ruth said. "I was thinking maybe it was something from a whaling boat -- maybe 100 years old. A galleon shouldn't be in such good shape."But the tests dated the wood as being about 370 years old, with a 40-year margin of error.This had to be it, Ruth said; the Santa Maria was built by Spanish shipwrights in Ecuador just a few years before it was sunk in 1681.Marx said the find could be the most significant galleon discovery ever because it "appears to be a virgin wreck. Most shipwrecks have been picked over in antiquity."Ruth headed to Ecuador on Oct. 2 to help with the final identification of the wreck. But by then, the turbulent ocean had "hidden her secrets again," Ruth said in an e-mail to the Orlando Sentinel. Where timbers and shell-covered boxes had been seen, there was nothing but bare sand.More equipment was brought in -- something akin to water cannons to wash away the sand. It took 20 days to clear enough to see what lay beneath.New artifacts, including flints from muskets with crosses etched in them date the vessel to between 1649 and 1680. That, along with the thousands of coins scattered on the ocean and carbon-dating, is enough proof, Ruth said, to confirm the discovery is the wreck of the Santa Maria de la Consolacion."Consolacion Found" was the brief dispatch that Ruth sent to the salvage partners and the Ecuadorian government.Divers have been ordered not to move anything until more sand is cleared and a full photographic survey of the wreck can be made.It is still anyone's guess what the treasure finally will be worth. Mingled with the wreck, the crew found dredge pipes with 50 years of coral growth. It could mean the shipwreck was looted in modern time. Or it could be debris left by the U.S. military, which occupied a nearby island during World War II.Ruth and the other treasure hunters will have to retrieve what is there and take stock. But he knows that coins from a shipwreck with a bloody history will be worth a lot more than unidentifiable metal looted from the sea."The story and history behind it is what makes it valuable," Ruth said earlier this month. "And it's what make it worth looking for."---Rich McKayThe Pirated Wreck of La Consolacion: In April 1681 three large galleons left Callao, the port of Lima, Peru, for Panama. On board was large shipment of gold and silver destined to be transferred overland at Panama to meet the Galleons. That treasure fleet sailed most years from Porto Bello, Panama to Spain, bringing the the wealth of the New World to Carlos II’s money-starved Spain..This year there had been a delay of over a month in Callao waiting for another smaller galleon, the Santa Maria de la Consolacion. That ship had been held up because of the late arrival of the silver bullion and specie from the Potosi mines. By the time it arrived in Callao, the Armada del Mar del Sur (name of the fleet which carried the treasure between Peru and Panama) had already sailed. The Viceroy of Peru, ignoring advice from royal officials who feared the ship would be in danger from pirates, ordered La Consolacion to sail alone.Sure enough, an English privateer/pirate was waiting for the ship. English sources all claim that the privateers under Captain Sharpe only had two small vessels. La Consolacion’s Captain Lerma first altered course and attempted to reach safety in Guayaquil. But when he found that the English "DEVIL PIRATES" were gaining on his ship, he attempted to take evasive action near the desolate Santa Clara Island, later named "Isla Muerte" or " "The Island of the Death"While nearing that island, his ship struck a reef or some rocks and quickly began to sink. La Consolacion soon settled on the shallow bottom, Officers, passengers and crew abandoned ship in several small boats and set fire to the galleon to prevent the capture of the treasure. They all then headed for the safety of a nearby rocky island.  Sharpe's men were indeed in hot pursuit. They were especially angry because the Spaniards had fired the ship to protect its bullion cargo. The English managed to capture many of the crew and passengers. They became even more furious when they learned the magnitude of the treasure they had missed seizing. The prisoners were beheaded!The English tarried about in the area for several days, forcing several local fisherman to try to recover some of the treasure. It proved to be utterly all in vain, as they only were able to pull up were some sails and rigging. The site of the shipwreck was then abandoned and lay forgotten for 320 years until modern searchers rediscovered it in 1998.  The fate of La Consolacion was the fate of many Spanish treasure galleons in this era The classic era of piracy in the Caribbean extends from around 1560 until the 1720s. Caribbean piracy arose out of, and mirrored on a smaller scale, the conflicts over trade and colonization among the rival European powers of the time. England, Spain, the Dutch United Provinces, and France were oftenCoin Type: Genuine Pirate 8 Reales a genuine piece of eight PIRATE silver coin!, recovered from the wreck of La Consolacion.Denomination: 8 RealesDetails: 21.5+ grams and about 36mm in diameterCoin Date: 1680Assayer: VMint: Potosi under Charles IICode: APP-244 In April 1681 three large galleons left Callao, the port of Lima, Peru, for Panama. On board was large shipment of gold and silver destined to be transferred overland at Panama to meet the Galleons. That treasure fleet sailed most years from Porto Bello, Panama to Spain, bringing the the wealth of the New World to Carlos II’s money-starved Spain.. This year there had been a delay of over a month in Callao waiting for another smaller galleon, the Santa Maria de la Consolacion. That ship had been held up because of the late arrival of the silver bullion and specie from the Potosi mines. By the time it arrived in Callao, the Armada del Mar del Sur (name of the fleet which carried the treasure between Peru and Panama) had already sailed. The Viceroy of Peru, ignoring advice from royal officials who feared the ship would be in danger from pirates, ordered La Consolacion to sail alone.Sure enough, an English privateer/pirate was waiting for the ship. English sources all claim that the privateers under Captain Sharpe only had two small vessels. La Consolacion’s Captain Lerma first altered course and attempted to reach safety in Guayaquil. But when he found that the English "DEVIL PIRATES" were gaining on his ship, he attempted to take evasive action near the desolate Santa Clara Island, later named "Isla Muerte" or " "The Island of the Death" While nearing that island, his ship struck a reef or some rocks and quickly began to sink. La Consolacion soon settled on the shallow bottom, Officers, passengers and crew abandoned ship in several small boats and set fire to the galleon to prevent the capture of the treasure. They all then headed for the safety of a nearby rocky island. Sharpe's men were indeed in hot pursuit. They were especially angry because the Spaniards had fired the ship to protect its bullion cargo. The English managed to capture many of the crew and passengers. They became even more furious when they learned the magnitude of the treasure they had missed seizing. The prisoners were beheaded!The English tarried about in the area for several days, forcing several local fisherman to try to recover some of the treasure. It proved to be utterly all in vain, as they only were able to pull up were some sails and rigging. The site of the shipwreck was then abandoned and lay forgotten for 320 years until modern searchers rediscovered it in 1998.The fate of La Consolacion was the fate of many Spanish treasure galleons in this era The classic era of piracy in the Caribbean extends from around 1560 until the 1720s. Caribbean piracy arose out of, and mirrored on a smaller scale, the conflicts over trade and colonization among the rival European powers of the time. England, Spain, the Dutch United Provinces, and France were often at war. The seizure of rich Spanish Treasure galleons was often the cause of these wars!Check out my other items! Be sure to add me to your favorites list! Sign up for my email newsletters by adding my eBay Store to your Favorites! 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