SHIPWRECK ARTIFACT: (COIN)  From The ' EL CAZADOR '

This coin is part of the cargo recovered from the wreck of the Spanish brigantine of war, El Cazador.  The loss of this vessel was part of an occurance that dramatically altered the destiny of the United States of America.  On January 11, 1784, El Cazador sailed from the port of Vera Cruz, Mexico, for New Orleans, carrying 450,000 pesos of minted silver coins.  The vessel and her crew disappeared into the winter seas, sinking without a trace. 

Carlos III, the King of Spain, (1759-1788), had intended the immense cargo of silver coins on board El Cazador to be used to redeem nearly worthless paper currency then in circulation in Spanish-owned Louisiana.  The ill-fated pesos were to have stabilized the Spanish monetary system in colonial North America and, hopefully, to have solidified Spain's North American holdings.  At the time of the loss of El Cazador, Spain was facing economic exhaustion, primarily due to 250 years of overseas conquest and decades of war.  After the loss, Spain's North American holdings continued to weaken and the King commenced negotiations to sell or trade Louisiana.  In 1800, a reluctant King Carlos IV (1788-1808) conveyed Louisiana to France's Napoleon for some minor European considerations.  Three years later, in 1803, Emperor Napoleon of France sold Louisiana, approximately one million square miles of North America, to President Thomas Jefferson's United States.  The purchase price was fifteen million dollars, about 3 cents per acre.

The treasure of El Cazador, had it arrived, was meant to redeem the financial affairs of one country; instead, the destiny of the United States was changed, its size instantly doubled.  There is no way to know what the history of Louisiana, the United States and the world would have been had the El Cazador completed its voyage.

On August 2, 1993, the wreck site of El Cazador was accidentally discovered by Capt. Jerry Murphy, the captain of a fishing vessel named "Mistake."  The Grumpy Partnership was formed to salvage the wreck site of El Cazador, and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana Judge Adrian DuPlantier, awarded all of the items salvaged from the wreck site to the Grumpy Partnership.  The modern-day discovery of El Cazador's treasure provides this unique opportunity to own a coin from "The wreck that chenged the world."

ARTIFACT # 2804072 ANACS SLAB CERTIFIED
 
MINT- Mexico

ASSAYER- FF

DATE- 1783

REIGN- Carlos III (1759-1788)

GRADE- F-15


Consignment; V 429, 2010.

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