Numismatic comments on the
São Jose (1622)
shipwreck coin collection
by
M.Sc. Alejandro Mirabal
Marine archaeologist
Estoril, Portugal, 24th of June 2011
[Note: Please refer to the Practical Book of Cobs (4th edition,
2007) for updated assayer information.]
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From the total volume of coins
excavated from the „nau‟ Almiranta São José, estimated at
23.211, a group of 7525 have been studied, divided into 4390
(58,34%) of 8 reales, 3120 (41,46%) of 4 reales and 15
(0,2%) of 2 reales. All are Hispanic coins, hammer-struck
during the kingdom of Felipe II (1556-1598) and Felipe III
(1598-1621) and follow the design established by the so-called
Pragmáticas de la Nueva Estampa (New Engraving Orders),
as determined by Felipe
II in 1566 and put into practice in the Spanish colonies from 1572.
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According to the design
of the New Engraving, the obverse side of the coin includes the
shield of the House of Habsburg, which contains the arms of the
territories under the Spanish crown. The arms of Castile, Leon,
Aragon and Naples-Sicily appear in the top half, whilst the arms of
Austria, modern Burgundy, old Burgundy and Brabant appear on the
bottom half and the arms of Flanders and Tyrol in a small shield in
the centre. A small pomegranate centred in the upper and lower half
symbolises the Kingdom of Granada, the last Moorish possession in
Spain re-conquered by the Catholic Kings in 1492. The reverse side
of the coin displays the quartered cross with the alternating arms
of Castile and Leon, encircled by a double border with 8 lobes.
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According to the same
royal statute, the external inscription, which starts on the
obverse and finishes on the reverse, generally reads PHILIPVS II (or
III, depending on the case) DEI GRATIA HISPANIARVM REX, and D.G.
HISPANIARUM ET INDIARUM REX. |
The geographical
distribution includes 3 groups: |
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coins minted in Mexico,
Viceroyalty of the New Spain: 2974 coins (39,52%)
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coins made in mints of
metropolis Spain: 2537 (33,71%) |
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coins from Lima and
Potosí, Viceroyalty of Perú: 2014 (26,77%). |
The Mexican mint,
founded by Charles I in 1535, was the first to be established by the
colonizers of the new world. Amongst those coins from Mexico only 7
correspond to the assayer with the initial O (Bernardo de
Oñate, 1564-1580?). He had been working in the Mexican mint
since the times of Charles I and his mother Iohana and still had the
same position when coins of the new Habsburg shield design started
to be struck in the mint in 1572. Some references indicate
that in the mid-1580s he was replaced by Luis de Oñate (158?-1590?)
who may have been his son. The coins continued to be produced
with the same initial O, hence there are no other elements
that enable one to recognize the differences between coins of both
assayers.
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The remaining coins
consist of 557 coins from the assayer F (Francisco de
Morales, 1607-1608 and 1610-1617), 23 from the assayer A
(Antonio de Morales, son of the former, 1608-1610) and 972 from the
assayer D (Diego de Godoy, 1618-1634), as well as 1415
undetermined, in which one can not see the assayer‟s mark.
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Dates only started to
be struck on coins in Mexico from 1607 onwards, with the production
of Francisco de Morales. The date 1600, which appears on some
coins of the assayer A (numbers 2095.091 and 2095.225)
therefore cannot be trusted, for it is |
known that this
official worked in the mint during a period of his father‟s absence,
between 1608 and 1610. It is possible that there was a mistake
in the manufacture of dies, perhaps unnoticed by the assayer, which
resulted in the date 1600. |
On a different coin of
this assayer the letter A appears above the F of the
father (No. 2102.242, A/F), confirming his temporary labour,
during which he seems to have occasionally used a die with the
initial of his father upon which he overstruck his own initial.
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It is worth noting that
Francisco de Morales and his successor, Diego de Godoy, produced
large quantities of coins, demonstrated by the high volume of their
coins in the cargo of Almiranta São José. It also seems
that at some point the latter substituted the former during some
time and used F dies marking them with his initial D.
When the former returned to his post, he also used the die of the
latter, which had the initial D, with a letter F
overstruck by the returning assayer. This procedure was common in
Spanish mints, especially in Mexico and Potosi, and in this case it
resulted in the assayer mark D/F. (numbers 2080.028) and
F/D (numbers 2070.042). Amongst the studied coins there
are various with these characteristics. |
The second largest
volume of analysed coins with a total of 2537 includes 1503
undetermined with no visible mintmark and thus difficult to
identify. The remaining 1034 coins are distributed between the
coins of Seville (774), Toledo (239), Granada (9), Segovia (7) and
Madrid (5). |
It is understandable
that coins struck in Spain were produced with higher quality than
the ones from Spanish-American mints even if hammer-struck, due to
the care and experience of the manufacturers who produced them.
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At the time, the
largest mint in the Iberian Peninsula was in Seville, which
justifies the larger amount of pieces with origin in Seville found
amongst the cargo of the São José. The second largest
amount in the studied collection comes from Toledo especially when
compared to the meagre samples from the other three Spanish mints. |
The Seville coins are
broken down in chronological order, as follows: |
1 from the assayer H
((Hernando de Rojas, 1590-1591) |
49 from the assayer
B (Juan Vicente Bravo, 1592-1597) |
70 from the assayer
V (Juan Bautista Veyntín, 1611-1619) |
273 from the assayer
D (Domínguez Ortiz, 1612-1615) |
156 from the assayer
G (Gaspar de Talavera (1615-1621) |
225 undetermined, with
no visible stamp from the assayer. |
One particular coin of
the assayer H (number 2096.142) calls for special attention
because it displays the date 1590, allowing it to be identified as a
production of Hernando de Rojas, despite the fact that other
succeeding assayers were also called Hernando and used the same
initial. |
The pieces from the
mint in Toledo amount to 239, distributed as follows: |
1 from the assayer M
(Eugenio de Manzanas, 1566?-1580) |
1 from the assayer M
in a circle (Alejo de Montoya, 1578-1592) |
44 from the assayer
C (Melchor Rodríguez del Castillo, 1593-1613) |
34 from the assayer
V (unknown, 1611-1618) |
89 from the assayer
P (unknown, 1619-1621) |
A document from 1572
illustrates that Eugenio de Manzanas was assayer of the mint of
Toledo, and that he had worked some time before with his relative
Baltasar de Manzanas who used the same initial; however, he had not
minted coins with the New Engraving, but rather of the earlier type,
with the name of Fernando and Isabel. |
A reference found in
this study‟s bibliography mentions that Melchor Rodríguez del
Castillo was assayer of the mint of Toledo between 1593 and 1595,
and that afterwards he transferred to Segovia, where he held the
same position between 1599 and 1611. However, among the studied
coins dated between 1609 and 1611 (Numbers 2080.051, 2095.397,
2095.500), there are some pieces from Toledo with the initial C,
which cannot be attributed to any other assayer of that mint,
leading one to assume that during those years the assayer returned
to Toledo, or that he worked temporarily in both mints.
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An interesting aspect
that is common to the seven coins from the Segovia mint is a small
shield with the arms of Portugal, centred on the two upper quadrants
within the Habsburg shield. Portugal was part of the Spanish domain
between 1580 and 1640. From this collection of coins two are
associated to two assayers who worked together and united their
initials in the form of the mark IM (Ioan de Ortega, working
alone, 1590-1598). In one case, there is the particularity that an
O appears over the I (Number 2089.049). Although this is
not mentioned in any sources listed the bibliography, the O
may have been added by the assayer Ortega to establish a clearer
difference with the joint mark of his predecessors Morales. Lastly,
two other coins correspond to the assayer A (Andrés de
Pedrera, 1617-1621). |
Of the remaining
Spanish coins, five belong to the mint of Madrid, one of which one
is from the assayer G (Gonzalo Rodríguez Bermúdez, 1615-1620)
and four of the assayer V (Juan Velázquez, 1621-1628).
Another nine are from the mint of Granada, eight of which from the
production of the assayer M (Francisco Mínguez, 1597-1621).
None of these coins displays any particularities. |
Among the collection of
coins minted in Peru, the third group in relation to quantity, a
small lot of eleven examples originates from the mint of Lima, the
capital of the Viceroyalty. The mint of Lima was founded by
Felipe II in 1565 and started to operate three years later, but in
1573 it was close due to irregularities detected in the operations
and was therefore transferred to the city of Chuquisaca (today named
Sucre, in Bolivia), baptised as La Plata by the Spaniards after
locating important silver deposits nearby. Shortly afterwards,
the mint was relocated to Lima and functioned until 1588, closing
again until the second half of the following century. It is because
of these inconsistencies that the production during the 16th Century
was so limited, explaining the scarcity of these coins in the São
José
cargo when compared to the significant abundance of coins from
Potosí. |
One of the coins is
attributed to the assayer L, who worked only in 1577, but his
name is unknown. The remaining nine correspond to the assayer
D
(Diego de la Torre, 1577-1588). This assayer is well known
thanks to the high quality of his coins, considered the best silver
coining of the 16th Century in the whole of Spanish America. The
obverse side of the coins catches one‟s attention because of a small
six-point star, believed to have been included by the assayer in
order to identify the coins from Lima, because both this mint and
that of Potosí used the letter P; in those pieces made in
Lima the P refers to Peru. |
In 1574 Felipe II
founded the mint of the “Villa Imperial de Potosí” next to the
largest deposit of silver in Spanish America known as “Cerro Rico”.
During the colonial era, “Cerro Rico” enriched the Spanish crown
with the colossal sum of approximately 2000 million “onzas” of
silver (pieces of 8 reales), resulting in the development of
the Renaissance in Europe and contributing to finance the
construction of the “Armada Invencible”. The silver also
turned Potosí into an immensely prosperous city, rumoured to have
“paved its streets with silver tiles.” (El Correo de la Unesco,
March 2000, pp. 3-4, author‟s translation) |
The total of 2003 coins
minted in Potosí are distributed into two coins from assayer A
(Alonso López de Barriales, 1572-1591, or Juan Alvarez
Reinaltes, 1586-1592), 128 from assayer B (Juan Ballesteros
Narváez, 1592-1610, and his brother Hernando Ballesteros,
1596?-1605?), 357 from assayer Q (Agustín de la Quadra,
1613-1616), 153 from assayer M (Juan Muñoz, 1616-1617), 169
from assayer T
(Juan Ximénez de Tapia, 1618-1623), and 925 undetermined.
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The coins from the
Potosí mint often displayed certain peculiarities due to the
extraordinary productions and the industriousness with which it was
often necessary to strike coins. Alonso López de Barriales and Juan
Alvarez Reinantes, mentioned above, coincided in some years of their
respective work periods, both using the initial A, without
establishing their own elements or characteristics to differentiate
the coins. |
Juan Ballesteros
Narváez was the most productive assayer, although on some occasions
he was replaced by his brother Hernando. They produced a large
quantity of coins which occasionally included small details in the
design that allow to define the period during which they were
struck. In the analysed pieces, however, it has not been
possible to detect such characteristics due to the increased level
of deterioration and erosion resulting from over three hundred and
seventy years in a marine environment. |
Baltasar Ramos Leceta
worked on some occasions as a tenant of Juan Ballesteros, using the
letter R with a slanted diagonal line; subsequently, during
the kingdom of Felipe III, he modified his initial by making the
line curved. The coins from the studied collection come from
this second period, when coins from Potosí started to be dated. Five
of these pieces exceptionally display the monogram RAL,
formed by superimposing all three letters, estimated to have been
made by the assayer in 1618 (Numbers 2074.036, 2099.071, 2105.026,
2121.186, 2122.008). These coins are considered rare. |
Ramos Leceta was
followed by Agustín de la Quadra (Number 2097.060, the best piece
among the collection from Potosí). This assayer sometimes used
dies from his predecessors, overstruck with an initial Q,
which produced the rare variant Q/R (Number 2104.047), of
which only seven have been found. An even more unusual one includes
the inverted Q mark (Number 2092.001), a double Q
(Number 2096.228), a double P as mintmark (Number 2120.113)
and another coin with a P twice its usual size (Number
2120.079). All mentioned variants are rare. |
The next assayer was
Juan Muñoz and, following tradition, he also used dies of the former
official, which were thus marked M/Q (Number 2078.097).
This is also a rare and scarce variant observed only on three of the
analysed coins. |
The last assayer in
this group is Juan Ximénez de Tapia. This assayer‟s coins are
characterized by a series of errors and deficiencies due to poor
workmanship. In some of the studied coins it is noted that the
blundered strike results in the quadrant of one shield overlapping
the others (e.g. Number 2081.298). There were also other samples
of coins struck with a faulty die. Twelve of these coins are
particularly noticeable because the upper quadrants of the shield
appear transposed, that is to say Naples-Sicily and Aragon to the
left, and Castile and Leon to the right (Number 2080.085).
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A document from 1616
narrates the visit of the inspectors, which took place that same
year in the mint of Potosí. Several samples of the accumulated
dies over several years were analysed, leading to the conclusion
that in those coins of Baltasar Ramos Leceta and Agustín de la
Quadra there were considerable errors in the weight and fineness or
contents of the silver, thus seemingly fraudulent. The
assayers were no longer alive to react to the claim. Among the
coins from the São José,
those that are 8 reales predominantly weigh between 20 and 27
grams, despite the deterioration and the natural erosion caused by
the sea. However, some of these coins fall into a range of
weight between 11 and 16 grams; one can thus assume that they
probably weighed less since the day they were struck. This
disproportion is not only found in the mentioned assayers, but also
in other officials of the mint. (Numbers 2156.000, R, 12 g;
2114.067,
Q, 13 g; 2114.026, B, 14 g; 2104.378, M, 11 g;
2110.127, T, 14 g) |
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