1/20/23 Report - Maravedi of the Sixteenth Century and the Santo Domingo Mint Previously Found on the Treasure Coast.

Written by the TreasueGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.

Maravedi Found by Captain Jonah and Crew of the Capitana in 2019.

Lartely I've been talking a good bit about 16th Century coins found on the Treasure Coast.  The Treasure Coast is most known for its 1715 shipwrecks, and many of the old coins found are from those wrecks.  Therefore, the coins most often date from the early 18th century and later 17th century.  However, there are also older wrecks along the Treasure Coast.

Most of the 1715 beach finds are reales, but in addition to an occasional escudo, medivedis of the 16th century have also been found along the Treasure Coast.  The four-maravedi shown above was found by Captain Jonah and the crew of the Capitana during the 2019 salvage season.  The S to the left of the columns on the reverse shows that it is from the Santo Domingo mint, which was an early New World mint and the Roman numeral 4 on the right side of the obverse gives the denomination.

(See The Treasure Beaches Report Direct From Florida's Treasure Coast.: 3/11/20 Report - Some of The Oldest Coins Found On The Treasure Coast.

Below is an illustration showing the basic design of a Santo Domingo four-maravedi of the second series.  

Illustration of Typical Santo Domingo Four-Maravedi (Second Series)

It matches fairly well the find shown at the top of this post.  The second series dates from 1542 to 1556.  A very early coin.  After the second series a new design was adopted.

A Santo Domingo four-maravedi of the first series is shown below.  You can see it is distinctly different from the second series maravedi design shown immediately above.

Illustration of Typical Santo Domingo Four-Maravedi (First Series).

There are many minor variations on these coins, but the general design remains pretty much the same. 

Maravedis were also produced by the Mexico mint during the 16th century.  They are clearly different from those produced by the Santo Domingo mint.  Below is an example of a Mexico minted four-maravedi of the same period.

16th Century Mexico Four-Maravedis Design.

Made of copper, or should I say bronze, maravedis are not common finds on the Treasure Coast, but, as I've shown, they can be and have been found on the Treasure Coast. 

*The three illustrations are from Sewall Menzel's book, Cobs, Pieces of Eight and Treasuer Coins.

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Save those pull-tabs.  Look at this.

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We are still having a small surf.  The tiides are just a little bigger.

Good hunting,

Treasureguide@comcast.net