Code: 11123
Spanish Empire, King Philip V of Spain, 1743 8 Reales (Pillar Dollar).
Mexico mint, assayer MF.
Has been graded and slabbed by NGC as Sea Salvaged with The Blue Shipwreck Certification Label stating: Reijgersdaal.
NGC Certification number: 6944702-001.
*The Reijgersdaal was a VOC east Indiaman from Holland.
During October 1747, she set sail from Texel, North Holland, bound for India, with a crew of 297 and a large cargo of silver and lead. By the time she stopped at South Africa, 125 of the ships company had died from disease and exhaustion.
A short while later after re-starting their journey, they hit difficulty due to extreme weather. Eventually whilst at anchor, the ships anchor chain broke, causing the ship to run-aground on a reef by Springfontein point, near Cape Town.
A rowing boat was sent out towards the shore to hang a lifeline; unfortunately when they returned the ship had been totally destroyed with no survivors.
Fast-forward to 1979. A salvage team headed by Brian Clark and Tubby Gericke discovered the Reijgersdaal wreck.
The team managed to salvage some of the cannons and lead.
However it was not until after the initial salvage, that, Jimmy Rawe and Arthur Ridge later found approximately 6,000 of the silver coins, which were onboard. Most of the coins salvaged were Eight Reales of the Mexico mint.
