Cuban overstamped Spanish reales

From OVERSTAMPS

Here is one of the Cuban over stamped Spanish reales.
Click on the coin photo to view the other over stamped coins. Use your back button to return here.

Navigate to: "The meaning of the over stamps" to find the answer.

The Fort Lauderdale Sunrise Wreck - Wreck date

Until recently we had always assumed that the earliest wreck date possible was 1839. This assumption was based upon the youngest coin found: An 1839 Isabel coin.

However, this has recently been revised due to the diligence of Matthew de Felice, County Archaeologist, Broward County Historical Commission.

In the summer of 2007, I invited Matt, and others, to my home for a showing of the artifacts from the Fort Lauderdale Sunrise Wreck. After Matt arrived, and had surveyed the displays that were spread about, I noticed that he was studying some of the coins, and sketching one carefully. Several of the coins had been struck on the obverse with an over-stamp. It was one of these over-stamps that he was sketching. I have never had a clue as to the meaning of it, until the next day when he messaged me.

Navigate to "Cuban over stamped Spanish reales" to view the coins that bear the over-stamp.

"OLD SPANISH COINS FOUND ON BEACH"

"Marvin Grim Discovers 14 Silver Pieces"

"Possibility that Las Olas Beach may once have been the haunt of pirates and buccaneers was evidenced this morning by the discovery of 14 old Spanish silver coins on the north beach ----.

Marvin Grim, 15, found the coins and brought them to the Chamber of Commerce, August Burghard, Chamber secretary, said. The coins, when found, were stuck together by some kind of corrosion, indicating that they may have been in a container at one time. They all bore legible Spanish writing and the dates were readable. Some of the dates were 7775, 1779 and 1801."

Fort Lauderdale Daily News, Tuesday, November 5, 1935, pg. 2.

This 1935 news article was discovered in the summer of 2007 by the staff of the Broward County Historical Commission. Young Mr. Grimm was probably just as excited to find his coins as we were in 1956 when we made our finds. Again, the coin dates coincide well with the other coins found associated with this wreck.

The fact that Marvin's coins were found on the beach leads me to suggest that the hull, or fragments of it, and iron structures are located near where the coins were found.

A search of the 1935 hurricanes leads one to suspect that the 1935 Yankee hurricane uncovered the cluster of coins for Marvin to find. That hurricane came south from off shore of the Carolina's making landfall near Miami Beach as a category 2 hurricane on November 4th Marvin found the coin clump on the morning of November 5.

This was also the year of the Labor Day Hurricane that was a small intense hurricane which came ashore in the Upper Keys on September 2Nd as a category 5. That storm probably caused substantial beach erosion of Fort Lauderdale beaches, helping to uncover Marvin's find.

Possible salvage by others:

Reference is made to: Potter, John S., Jr., THE TREASURE DIVER’S GUIDE, revised edition (New York, 1972), 212.

“Calling it the Fort Lauderdale Wreck, Potter wrote ‘While surveying wreck sites, Colonel Frank F. Tenney’s team located a wreck yielding many interesting artifacts and a number of Spanish coins dating from 1772 to 1816. The January 1965 moratorium on leases prevented Colonel Tenney from obtaining rights to the site, and the recoveries were turned over to the State.”

The above reference came from an article: “Shipwrecks of Broward County”, by James Dean, BROWARD LEGACY, Volume 6 Winter/Spring 1983, Broward County Historical Commission, 25.

Because the date range of Colonel Tenney’s Spanish coins coincide well with the ones that we found, it is possible that coins have come from the same site. I would find it interesting to view those artifacts held by the state of Florida that pertain to the Fort Lauderdale Sunrise Wreck.

Fort Lauderdale Sunrise Wreck Introduction:

1956 – 1957 Fort Lauderdale Sunrise Wreck salvage history.

The initial cultural deposit was discovered by Charles & John Noyes in 1956 while collecting tropical fish.

It looked like there was man-made debris here. A gentle blow to the area with a crowbar released a telltale black, iron sulphide cloud, confirming our suspicions. Fanning around by hand, it was’t long before we brought up a couple Spanish milled silver coins. We were then hooked on working the site whenever we could for the next couple of years.

Actually, this deposit was only that, a deposit. This was not the ship's remains, however pieces of the ship are scattered in a long debris field in a westerly direction. Apparently, the ship was caught up in a heavy storm, or hurricane that swept it onto the seaward edge of Hillsboro Ridge, a shallow reef running parallel to shore about a half mile off Fort Lauderdale beach, and where the water's depth is 12 to 15 ft. depending upon the stage of the tides. It was caught up there long enough for the hull to be breached and the debris to be deposited.

This deposit was spread in a north/south direction for 15 to 20 feet along this reef. This is where all of the recovered artifacts were found. The entire area was cemented with encrustations and was hard to break loose. We used crowbars with some success. However, the really tough material was broken loose using a 30 pound 6 foot jackhammer rod, with a chisel point, as a high-leverage pry bar. We worked carefully so as not to damage individual artifacts. The larger iron pieces, once broken away from the deposit mass, were moved east a few feet to gain access to the deposit, where they still are to this day.

Note: Underwater archaeologists today would condemn such heavy handed destruction of a cultural deposit. Please remember that the deposit was worked in 1956 & 1957 when underwater archaeology did not exist, or was in it's infancy. Now the State of Florida protects it's Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH).

Recovery of these artifacts by us was fortunate in that the collection has been kept intact, with a few exceptions (noted later). Considering the very shallow depth of the site, the and ever increasing number of divers entering the coastal waters here, I think this find was truly an exceptional experience.

We found many artifacts, including an incomplete brass sextant with what looks like a silver calibration inlaid in the arc and bearing the inscription “W. Hogg, London”, two halves of what appear to be a brass cannon ball mold (recently these have been described as possibly being filials for maybe bedposts), brass spikes, a silver or pewter spoon with the inscription “P. Barnes & Co., London”, a bronze marlin spike, a couple of brass hinges, a brass doorknob, a brass padlock, a few small pieces of coal, over 40 Spanish milled silver coins ranging in date from 1774 through 1839, around 60 Spanish milled silver coins and pieces of milled coins in various poor conditions, a sounding lead, lots of glass pieces including some wine and champagne bottle necks and bottoms, and assorted pottery pieces (one with a stamped mark of English, origin identified by Christopher R. Eck, MA, JD).

We discovered that the substrate here contained potholes up to 10 inches deep. Many of the coins were found by fanning the sand and debris out of these potholes. However, their quality was generally poor due to lack of contact with a sacrificial metal as well as the anaerobic or semi-anaerobic conditions at the bottoms of potholes.

The ship’s registry is possibly British based upon the several of the artifacts, but that is unconfirmed, and the ship's name is unknown.