To wrap up this year’s issues, I thought it would be appropriate to pose two of the 2016 newsmakers as our Cover Coin(s) this time. From the State of Florida’s Collection of treasure coins recovered from the 1715 Plate Fleet come these two fully-dated pieces, which are displayed on the 1715 Fleet Society web site (for the benefit your study). Appearing on the 1715 Fleet Society’s web site as the June 2016 Treasure of the Month (TOM) comes this eight-reales piece sporting the finest date on an 8R in the State’s collection. It exhibits a fully and deeply-struck —I-7-I-5— (including the enclosing pellets). This is the best-dated piece —bar none— in the over 100 coins of this denomination in the state’s possession. Yes, there are good dated pieces with lower denominations in their set, but we chose to consider only the top-end “eights”. Its State Accession Number is 72A.013.000176.0062.
Next up is the July 2016 Treasure of the Month (and the Cover Coin from the Third-Quarter issue of PLVS VLTRA Newsletter), an eight-escudo piece with the State Accession Number 11.01652. Though not as distinct as that on the eight-reales, the I-7-I-5 date (with the punctuation marks this time being three-lobed rosettes) appears at about 11:00 o’clock on the coin’s obverse (page-1).
For further descriptions and more coin photographs (in color), please review the “1715 Fleet Research Collection” and “The 1715 Gold Coin Collection” areas of the Society’s web presence. These sections include over 1,500 silver and gold coins for your study and are linked from the Society’s “home page”. —EJR
