Reading Spanish Coins From the La Galga and Juno Shipwrecks With 3D Replicas

Two Spanish ships lie off Assateague Island, on the Maryland–Virginia coast:

Whose wrecks

Spain never declared the ships abandoned, so although they lie in U.S. waters, they did not belong to the U.S. government. After they were found in 1997, Spain took ownership of the wrecks and artifacts, and in 2006 the two governments agreed that the National Park Service would help preserve them. Some artifacts are on display at the Assateague Island National Seashore visitor center in Maryland.

Assateague is part of the chain of barrier islands from Maine to Texas; a 1933 hurricane cut the inlet separating it from Fenwick Island. Three agencies manage it: the NPS and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources on the Maryland end, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the Virginia end — Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge (1943), Assateague State Park (1956) and Assateague Island National Seashore (1965).

The NPS worked with the Virtual Curation Lab at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) to 3D-scan coins from both wrecks, and VCU posted them online, so anyone can study them without visiting.

What coins tell archeologists

Coins reveal currency and trade — a British coin on a ship sailing from Florida to Spain raises questions about goods and routes. They also give a relative date. Coins dated 1734 and 1799 showed the wrecks could not be older than those years; older, undated coins had markings from the late 1600s–early 1700s. Both fit the historical records of La Galga and Juno.

The coins are Spanish reales (real meaning royal), Spain's currency from the mid-14th century until 1868, when the peseta replaced it. They came in silver and gold, mostly silver.

Reading a real

Year and ruler. A year is often stamped at the bottom, and the reigning ruler is sometimes shown, tying a coin to a king and his times:

A 3D replica of a Spanish real from the reign of Philip V. Image from the Park Service's page; see the coin in 3D.

How it was made. Colonial reales were cobs — cut from silver bars into irregular shapes and chipped to the exact weight (from Spanish cabo, end of the bar). Later coins were milled — punched as perfect circles from a sheet of silver or gold. Round means milled; irregular means cob.

A milled and a cobbed coin. Image from the Park Service's page; see the milled and cobbed coins in 3D.

Denomination. The value is usually on the edge, next to initials, or beside the main design — most often 1, 2, 4, 6 or 8 followed by an "r" or "s": 1 real, 8 reales and so on.

The reverse of a coin marked 8s. Image from the Park Service's page.

Mint mark. Shows where the coin was made — in Spain or in colonies such as Colombia, Mexico, Peru and Guatemala — usually beside the denomination or the main design.

Assayer's initials. The assayer, a government agent, checked that coins met the standards of weight and purity for each denomination. His initials are letters with nothing between them, usually on the edge or by the main design.

The reverse of a coin with the assayer's initials "MF". Image from the Park Service's page.

Protect the past

Archeological sites — underwater ones above all — have been heavily looted. Looting is illegal, and once objects leave a site, their story becomes very hard to understand. Learning to read coins properly, from replicas like these, helps preserve their history.

Sources

Based on "Using 3D Replicas to Study Spanish Coins From La Galga and Juno Shipwrecks," National Park Service, Assateague Island National Seashore; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The source labels its Philip V coin both 1731 and 1741, so no year is given here; its "asseyer" is spelled assayer.