Spanish Shipwreck Treasure of 1622: Silver 8-Reales from the Sao Jose (sank Mozambique Channel)
I have received 7 coins from the wreck, but initially only listed 6 because their weight and condition were very similar. This 7th coin is listed separately as its weight at 16.4 grams is significantly less compared to others that weighed between 21 and 24 grams each, but it also scanned (tested) positive for its very high grade silver-content as expected.
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Please see the following pictures.
. According to an internet source ...
“In March 1622, a fleet of ships including the São José hastily departed Lisbon with an urgent mission. Bound for Goa, the capital of Portugal’s enormous overseas empire, the fleet carried Francisco da Gama, whose great grandfather, the legendary Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, was the first European to set foot in India via sea route.
After the São José and her fleet rounded the Cape of Good Hope, she proceeded up the well-traveled route along the East African coast into the Strait of Madagascar. In the evening of July 22, 1622, as the vessel sailed up the Mozambique Channel, a combined fleet of Dutch and British ships of the East India Company attacked the Portuguese flotilla. Trailing behind the others, the São José was cut off from the rest of the fleet and surrounded by the enemy, which allegedly fired more shots into the embattled vessel than ever before recorded in a single-ship attack in the Indian Ocean. As fighting took place, the ship’s captain, senior officers and others had fallen ill and the commanding officer and pilot were killed.
Despite these heroic efforts, the São José met her demise grounded on a reef off the Mozambique coast, victim to final assault by the Anglo-Dutch fleet. A reported 66,000 Spanish reales were salvaged by the enemy, a small share of the total treasure aboard the ship, lost with some 300-400 passengers and crew as the vessel broke up and sank to the bottom of the Mozambique Channel.
For nearly 400 years, the wreck of the São José remained hidden off the isolated coast of East Africa until her discovery in May 2005 by the Portuguese marine archaeology company Arqueonautas.
The extraordinary find yielded over 24,000 silver reales coins, representing a rare collection of Old and New World mints with a wide variety of dates and denominations—the stunning remains of King Philip III’s royal treasure once bound for India when Spain and Portugal together claimed a vast overseas empire”.
