Here is a most interesting piece of nostalgia … a 1966 Treasure Salvors, Inc. price list for gold coins and artifacts. Note that the prices for the gold coins include dated and undated material. Interestingly, the dated Mexico eight escudos gold coins (1713 and 1714) are over twice as expensive as a Lima eight escudos dated 1712 ($2,200.00 to $900,00). In today’s market Lima eight escudos, for the most part, out price the Mexico eight escudos. It may be that in 1966 the relative rarity of the Lima pieces as compared to the Mexico pieces was not appreciated. That is not to say that Mexico pieces are not desirable. It is just that Lima gold coins are MORE desirable.
Also notice that the price list includes a most peculiar item, a “BULLION PIZZA PIE DISC OVER 50 LBS”. This item was priced at a cool $9,000.00. The trouble is that this “PIZZA PIE’ was made of copper and not bullion. There were a number of these found on the Cabin Wreck site just south of the Sebastian Inlet. They were initially thought to be silver when first recovered. However, later analysis showed that they were made of copper, known as bell metal for constructing bells.
Considering what these coins and artifacts would bring in today’s auction market one can’t help but wish that there was a time machine out there that we could borrow … just for a few hours!
