Glossary of Numismatic Terms

This glossary was created to facilitate a better understanding of the articles and new items posted on the 1715 Fleet Society Website.

Glossary of Numismatic Terms

Curated by 1715 Fleet Society Director Emeritus Ernie Richards.

Arms

Insignia of a family or country, containing specific figures and colors and passed along through hereditary lineage.

Avoirdupois

System of weight in English-speaking countries wherein 1 ounce equals 28.35 grams and there are 16 ounces to the pound.

Bendlet

Diminutive form of “bend”, a diagonal (upper left to lower right) bar within a coat of arms. Usually signifies bastardy.

Blanca

A Spanish coin valued at one-half maravedí.

Bocado

Spanish for “bite”, referring to the gouge (or notch) found in assayed bars of silver and gold, the metal from which paid the assayer’s fee.

Bourbon Dynasty

In Spain, the bloodline succession of the Bourbon Family monarchs from 1700 to the present.

Canton

In heraldry, the position of a device usually in the upper right region of the shield.

Cartouche

A boxed stamping on ingots, usually containing the monogram of a person, place, or company.

Castellano

Old Spanish gold coin-type equivalent to something more than the excelentes and ducados of the time (difficult to determine).

Cédula

A decree or order issued by some official authority. A Cédula Real would have originated with the ruling monarch.

Coat-of-arms

A shield or escutcheon which bears the heraldic designs of a family or nation. Often interchanged with “crest”.

Cob

A hand-stamped Spanish colonial coin characterized by an irregular outline (from the Spanish cabo de barra — “end of the bar”).

Corazón

Spanish for “heart”, a cob specially carved to look like the Sacred Heart of Christ as issued from the colonial mints at Potosí, Lima, and Mexico City.

Crest

In heraldry, anything placed above the shield, but today sometimes used interchangeably with “coat of arms” or “shield”.

Cross Potent

In heraldry, the bold cross of equal-length arms. Greek Cross.

Cruz Florenzada

Spanish for “flowered cross”, a cross whose arms are terminated in fleurs-de-lis, stylized or not.

Cuartillo

A Spanish or Spanish colonial coin of one-quarter real value.

Cuarto

Vernacular (Spanish) for a silver coin of one-quarter real value.

Curvilinear

Characterized by curved lines, such as the arcs of a tressure.

Denomination

One of a set of values given to a series of coins, such as dollar, half-dollar, quarter-dollar, etc.

Device

In heraldry, an emblem (lion, castle, e.g.) which represents an action or quality and is usually ascribed to a family or nation.

Dos Mundos

Spanish for “two worlds”, referring to the earliest milled coinage out of the Spanish colonies which bore globes —the Old World and the New— situated between two columns.

Ducado

Spanish coin, the counterpart to the gold ducats used throughout Europe. Valued at 11 reales plus 1 maravedí, or 375 maravedíes.

Spanish for “escutcheon” or “shield”, a denomination series for gold coins of Spanish or Spanish colonial origin, in which the largest coin is valued at 8 escudos, and the lesser pieces are successively one-half the weight of the next greater (i.e. 8, 4, 2, 1, 1/2 and 1/4 escudos).

Escutcheon

The shield-shaped field onto which are placed various heraldic devices which may form the arms of a family or nation. A shield.

Excelente

Spanish gold coin, equivalent to the ducado, or 375 maravedíes.

Fess(e)

In heraldry, a wide horizontal bar used to adorn a crest or shield.

Flan

A wafer of metal onto which the details of a coin are stamped or pressed, a blank or planchet.

Fleur(s)-de-lis

French for “lily flowers”. In heraldry, a symbol of purity … or the Holy Trinity.

Grano

Spanish for “grain”, a quarter of a carat of gold.

Guañín

“Base” gold.

Hapsburg Dynasty

In Spain, the bloodline succession of Hapsburg Family monarchs from 1516 to 1700.

Inescutcheon

A shield or escutcheon positioned within the outline of another escutcheon.

Intaglio

Referring to a die so incised as to produce a design in relief (raised).

Jerusalem Cross

A cross of four equal arms, each terminating in a small cross. A “crosslet” cross.

Legend

An inscription on a coin, usually placed around the periphery of Spanish or Spanish colonial pieces.

Macuquina(s)

Another Spanish term for a coin of irregular outline, cob.

Maravedí(es)

The basis for the Old Spanish monetary system, equal to 1/34 of a real. Copper coins in denominations of one, two, or four of these units.

Marco

Unit of weight used in accounting for precious metals, equal to one-half pound in the Avoirdupois system.

Medio

Vernacular (Spanish) for a silver coin of one-half real value.

Milled

Having a raised or knurled edge, as on a coin. Also referring to machine-made coins.

Onza

Literally “an ounce” in Spanish. Specifically an ounce of gold or a coin of that weight.

Pallet

In heraldry, a device appearing as a vertical bar in a shield.

Passant

Latin, referring to the image of a (lion) “passing”, one leg up, others on the ground.

Pistolé

French for “pistol”, used by the Spanish as a nickname for a coin of two escudos denomination.

Planchet

A wafer of metal onto which the details of a coin are stamped or pressed. A blank or flan.

Plata doble

Platinum, in Spanish “false silver”.

Quadrant

Used interchangeably with “quarter” as one of four equal divisions of a shield.

Quarter

In heraldry, any of the four equal sections into which a shield is divided.

Quatrefoil

Describing the four-petaled flower image as used on coins as a tressure.

Rampant

In heraldry, (a lion) reared up on the hind legs with the paws raised, as in defense or attack. Raging.

Real(es)

A denomination series for silver coins of Spanish or Spanish colonial origin, in which the largest coin is valued at 8 reales, and the lesser pieces are successively one-half the weight of the next greater (i.e. 8, 4, 2, 1, 1/2 and 1/4 reales.

Rectilinear

Characterized by straight lines, such as the sides of a square.

Riel(es)

In Spanish, a “rail” or small ingot. For our purposes, a long, thin bar or strap of gold or silver from which coin planchets are cut by shearing or chiseling them off the end.

Saltire

In heraldry, an X-shaped cross —the Cross of St. Andrew— used as a device within an escutcheon.

Shield

The field, shaped like a defensive shield, and onto which are placed various heraldic devices which may form the arms of a family or nation, an escutcheon or crest.

Specie

Gold, silver and other coins —hard money— as opposed to paper currency.

Statant

In heraldry, (a lion) in a standing “stationary” position, usually with four legs on the ground.

Tallador

The die sinker at a Spanish or Spanish colonial mint.

Tressure

An heraldic border. On coins, the enclosure around a cross.

Troy

System of weight used for precious metals wherein 1 ounce equals 31.103 grams and there are 12 ounces to the pound.

Tumbaga

A Native American term, adopted by the Spanish, referring to the metal(s) resulting from the melting down of Indian artifacts into ingots by Conquistadors for shipment to Spain.

Vellón

An alloy, as applies to Spanish or Spanish colonial coins, of copper with a trace amount of silver added for strength (or value?).

Glossary of 1715 Fleet Related Terms

Curated by 1715 Fleet Society Director Ben Costello.

Anchor Wreck

Located near Wabasso Beach about 8 miles south of Sebastian Inlet. It is the wreck site of “The Roberts” a ship that sank in a hurricane in 1810.

Boiler Wreck

Located in Vero Beach it is directly offshore across from the Ocean Grill. The S.S. Breckenshire sank on April 30, 1894. The ships boiler is easily seen today from the shore, particularly at low tide.

Cannon Wreck

Located about 2.3 miles south of the “Cabin Wreck”. At this site in August 1992 Captain Steve Shouppe of Galleon Research Incorporated, found 39 gold coins dated 1697 – 1714. The coins were obviously from one of the ships of the 1715 Fleet or possibly a recovery vessel. It was named the “Cannon Wreck” because of a number of cannons found at the site by Shouppe in 1991.

Corrigan’s Beach Wreck

A 1715 Fleet wreck site located 5 miles north of the Vero Beach city limits. The site is referred to as the “Corrigan’s Beach Wreck” because the beach was once owned by Hugh Corrigan. It has been the site of many great treasure recoveries including the famous Tri-Centennial Hoard of 2015. The wreck is either Ubilla’s capitana Nuestra Senora de Regla or his almiranta Santo Cristo de San Roman. Current research is divided on the identification.

Dan Thompson

Dan Thompson (1920 – 2005) Was a diver and original member of the Real Eight Company. Born in Savannah, Georgia, he was an electrical engineer and had a distinguished career in the U.S. Air Force, retiring as a Colonel. He was brought into the team that formed the Real Eight Company by Lou Ullian.

Douglass Beach Wreck

A 1715 Fleet wreck site located a few miles south of the Fort Pierce Inlet. It is often referred to by its old name, “Colored Beach.” In some early Real Eight Company correspondence, it was referred to as the “Gold Wreck,” and for good reason. Some 3,376 Spanish Colonial gold coins were recovered there in the first two months of their 1964 salvage season. This has been a very productive wreck site for 1715 Fleet related coins and artifacts. This wreck site was the subject of an extensive article written by Jorge Proctor and published in April 2021. The article offers new evidence that this site does not contain the remains of Ubilla’s patache, the Nuestra Senora de las Nieves y las Animus, but rather the remains of his fragitilla, the Santa Rita y las Animus, nicknamed the la Marigeleta.

Green Cabin Wreck

Green Cabin Wreck-Located about 1,000 feet south of Disney’s Vero Beach Ocean Resort. It has been identified as the San Martin, a ship from the 1618 Honduran Fleet. The San Martin, at 300 tons, was considered a medium-sized galleon.

Kip Wagner

Kip Wagner (1906 – 1972) was instrumental in the formation of the team that later became the Real Eight Company and one of the greatest salvage groups that ever explored the 1715 Fleet wrecks. He was born in Miamisburg, Ohio and moved to Florida in the 1940’s. Together with a doctor friend, Kip Kelso, Wagner unlocked the key to the location of the wreck sites of the 1715 Fleet. He obtained a license from the State of Florida to search those sites. Later, after helping to form the Real Eight Company, he and his team went on to recover a large portion of the treasure lost in the hurricane that destroyed the Fleet in 1715. Kip was the prime mover in arranging the first public auction of 1715 Fleet coins in October 1964.

Lou Ullian

Louis J. (Lou) Ullian (1932 – 2010) Was a diver and original member of the Real Eight Company. A native of Worcester, Massachusetts he served in the U.S. Navy, Naval Weapons Station from 1956 – 1959 as a hardhat underwater ordnance diver. He met up with Kip Wagner in 1959 and was the catalytic agent that set off the sequence of events that lead to the formation of the team that later became the Real Eight Company. Lou is remembered by many of us as one of the foremost scholars of the numismatics of the 1715 Fleet.

Real Eight Company

Also referred to occasionally as “The Real 8 Company”- was incorporated in 1961. It had eight members….Kip Wagner, Kip Kelso, Dan Thompson, Harry Cannon, Lou Ullian, Del Long, Erv Taylor and Lisbon Futch. Later the company included Bob Johnson, John Jones and Rex Stocker. C. Robert Brown also became a member of the group after Brown acquired the shares of Lisbon Futch in 1962. Brown died in 1964 and his shares ended up in his estate. They were later reacquired by the company. From its inception to the mid 1970’s, the Real Eight Company recovered the lions share of the precious treasure that was not salvaged by the Spanish after the 1715 Fleet was lost in a hurricane of that year. In the early 1960’s, ahead of everyone else, the company was first to obtain leases from that is located about the State of Florida which gave the company sole permission to salvage the wreck sites of the Fleet. Under the protection of these leases the company was widely recognized as the leader in recovery efforts. The company was dissolved in 1984.

Rio Mar Wreck

Located in Vero Beach opposite the Rio Mar Golf Course. The capitana of the Terra Firma Fleet it was the largest galleon of the eleven Spanish ships leaving Havana harbor in 1715. Her official name was the Nuestra Senora del Carmen, San Miguel y San Antonio, or Carmen for short. The Carmen was originally an English ship named Hampton Court which was subsequently captured by the French in 1707 and sold to Captain Don Antonio de Echeverz y Zubiza, who was the commander of the Terra Firma Squadron.

Urca de Lima

See Wedge Wreck.

Wedge Wreck

A 1715 Fleet wreck site that is located near Fort Pierce Inlet across from Pepper Park. Also referred to as the “Urca de Lima’, the Wedge Wreck is known for silver wedges found on this site by Kip Wagner. Not much has been salvaged from this wreck compared to other 1715 Fleet wreck sites. Cannons were recovered from this site in 1906 and again in 1928. Many of the recovered cannons were placed in Fort Pierce city parks.