Written by the TreasureGuide for the exclusive use of the Treasure Beaches Report.
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| Santo Domingo Four Reale (1536 -1556) See Menzell. |
If you found one of these, would you recognize it? First, it would be a rare find, and second, it you use the internet for research, you might even have trouble finding it there. Still, coins from this mint do exist and have been found.
This type of early coin looks very much like coins of the same era made in Mexico. This coin is from the Santo Domingo mint, which was an early mint, but had a short life and relatively speaking, produced few coins.
I've seen the Hispaniola or Santo Domingo mint referred to as the first Spanish mint in the Americas. There is little information on this mint on the internet and I found confusing or contradictory, if not simply incorrect information. The confusion is not surprising given the history of the mint.
The first two series of coins produced for Hispaniola were produced in Seville and shipped to the island for local use. In his book Cobs, Pieces of Eight and Treasure Coins, Sewall Menzell includes those coins, although clearly indicated as being produced in Seville, in his chapter on coins of the Santo Domingo mint. It probably does not help that the Santo Domingo "S" mint mark could easily be mistaken to indicate Seville.
Columbus was instructed to make provision for a mint in Hispaniola as his 1498 voyage. The settlements of Hispaniola had a need for currency, which was supplied, as previously mentioned by coins shipped from Spain. From the early days of the Hispaniola settlement, coin-like gold discs (tejuelos) were used by the locals for commerce, but those discs were not considered t
1506 - 1511 small denomination copper and silver coins were minted in Seville and shipped to Santo Domingo for use as circulating currency.
The first coinage of the Santo Domingo mint were of the crowned pillars style, which were produced from 1536 - 1556.
The first coinage of the Santo Domingo mint included both silver reales and copper maravedis, including the Pillars-style Charles and Johanna reales in 10, 4,2, 1/2, and 1/4 denominations.
Crowned Pillars of Hercules along with a shortened Plus Ultra motto were displayed on the reverse, while the obverse shows a shielded arms of Castile, Leon, and Granada. This style is very much like the coins made in Mexico at the time, but an S mint mark indicated Santo Domingo, and the letter P for primada indicated Santo Domingo as the first city of the Americas.
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| Another Santo Domingo Four Reale (1536 - 1556) See Menzell. |
The examples above are from the first coinage of the mint. Phillip II issued a 1570 decree provided for a new design to replace the Pillars of Hercules style. The new series utilized the following mint mark.
The new design showed the Hapsburg shield on the obverse, but the Pillars of Hercules were replaced by lions and castles quartered by a cross with balled ends on the other side.
You don't often see coins from the Santo Domingo mint, especially not silver coins. Copper maravedis were more numerous and are more common.
The photos shown above along with many more are from Sewall Menzell's book, Cobs, Pieres of Eight and Treasure Coins, American Numismatic Society, 2004. You will find may more details and more information in the Menzell book.
According to a CoinWorld article...
Few American coin series are comprised of coins that are so rare that a collection of 10 pieces is considered landmark.Ten silver coins struck at the Santo Domingo Mint in Spanish colonial Hispaniola, found in a shipwreck off the coast of modern-day Dominican Republic, are one such accumulation.
The Charles and Joanna coins, struck circa 1542 to 1552, highlight Daniel Frank Sedwick LLC’s Oct. 30 auction No. 14 in Orlando, Fla. This is the firm’s first live public floor auction...
Silver coins from Santo Domingo Mint rare appearance
One of the coins minted in Seville for Santo Domingo was found at a DeSoto site.
Here is that link.
The First Coin for the AmericasCoin found at De Soto site may be oldest ever in New World - UPI Archives
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Any time you get a Pillar of Hercules coin of this type, check for the mint.
Maybe I'll get into the subject of Santo Domingo maravedis some other time.
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Not much new on the weather front.
Good hunting,
TreasureGuide@comcast.net