“Lucayan Beach wreck,” sunk ca. 1628 off Grand Bahama Island

 Since the accidental discovery in 1964 of around 10,000 silver cobs (dated up to and including 1628) in 10 feet of water just 1,300 yards from the Lucayan Beach Hotel, the mystery of identifying the lost vessel has never been solved. Because of the date, popular opinion associates the wreck with the taking of the Spanish 1628 Fleet in Matanzas Bay, Cuba, by the Dutch pirate and national hero Piet Heyn, who reported losing two of the vessels on the way back to Europe. Three names proposed for the ship(s) by various sellers over the years were the Van Lynden, the Santa Gertrude (or Gertrudis) and the Romario, with scant evidence to support any of the attributions. Spanish archival research uncovered a new name—Nuestra Señora de los Remedios, sunk in that general area in 1624, but a quick check of auction catalogs confirms that some of the recovered coins were clearly dated later than that. A more recent (1990s) recovery off the Lucayan Beach turned up similar material—but no further clues as to the ship’s (or ships’) identity. Practically all of the coins have been Mexican 8 and 4 reales of the assayer-D period, some in quite nice condition and a few with clear dates, which of course are rare. Expect to pay a modest premium for specimens in white clamshell boxes produced by Spink & Son (London) in the 1960s for a promotion that capped off years of disagreements between the salvagers, their backers and the Bahamian government.