The Voyage for Spanish Silver

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This article is sponsored by CAC Grading, the collectors’ choice, inspiring confidence through accurate and consistent coin grading.

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For the past few years, I have been a member of my local coin club, which is where I met Don MacKay. A remarkable person, MacKay spent six years in the Air Force and has run a numismatic TV show. He served as a police officer, was an investor, and most recently won a marathon! He has been a mentor to me on my numismatic journey, always guiding and teaching. Every month he shares a fascinating story about his life through a coin. When he shared a story about hunting for Spanish silver treasure off the coast of Ecuador, I needed to know more. We sat down for a Q&A session after his presentation.

How did you get into numismatics?

Actually, I got intrigued with stamp collecting first. I looked into newspapers and found ads that would give me 100 stamps for 10 cents. I sent my dime in and got 100 stamps again and again. But I didn’t read the fine print, which stated that each of these stamps had a price on it. I didn’t make those payments. Eventually, a lawyer started to write to me asking, “Where is the payment for all this?” My mother intercepted one of those letters and had to pay a large amount of money to pay off my stamp bill. That was the end of my stamp collecting for a while. Eager to start a new collection, I noticed that my dad brought home his change every night from the office, and I was intrigued by all the coins. Eventually, he bought me a blue folder, one of those first old albums to start a penny collection. By the next year, I had earned a Boy Scout badge in coin collecting.

When did you first learn about Spanish silver pieces of eight?

I was in a coin shop in 1972, and I was looking at other coins when the store owner came up to me and showed me a piece of eight. He asked if I was interested. I went nuts, it was fascinating to me because it was irregularly shaped and was made of 97 percent silver. At that point, I decided I wanted to go out and find one, not buy it.

Can you tell me more about the history of Spanish silver and where it is found?

When I hear you ask about Spanish silver, I don’t think of anything before the year 1545. That’s when silver was discovered in what’s called the Viceroy of Peru, which is now Bolivia. Many stories surround Cerro Rico, which is “Rich Mountain,” and how that silver was found. But one thing’s for sure: when silver was found in that mountain, it became the world’s richest source of silver.

What was the process of becoming a part of a recovery team to find the silver?

That comes back to going out on a treasure hunt to find a galleon wreck, Jesús María de la Limpia Concepción, which we simply called the Capitana. The Capitana went down in 1654 because it was overloaded and wrecked on a rock. We knew it had been salvaged many times in the past, but we also believed that the recovery techniques that were used hundreds of years ago were inadequate. We decided we would get a permit to search for the remains, which turned out to be quite a challenge. We settled on terms that were acceptable to us and the Ecuadorian government. Namely, if we found the treasure, we would divide it in two, with them getting first pick.

How did you find this particular wreck?

We got a permit for a certain area, which we searched thoroughly and couldn’t find anything. So, we got a permit for an adjoining area, where, all of a sudden, we found a trail of artifacts leading right back to the original site we had abandoned. By this time, the first site was taken by another group of people who hadn’t found anything but had the permit for that area. So we made a deal and agreed that we would form a partnership with them and continue to look. My chief diver at the time, Rob McClung, ended up finding the Capitana.

What treasure did you find?

What we found was actually in very shallow water, only about 15 or 20 feet deep. We found about 6,300 pieces of eight. We also discovered many cannonballs, but they weren’t iron cannonballs, which was unusual—they were bronze.

Back in 1654, each coin was equivalent to a sailor’s wage for one month. When we salvaged the coins, they were worth about $200 to $300 each. Today, you will see those same coins are being sold for an average of $800 to $1,000. The whole lot would be worth about $5 million today.

What things do you need for a treasure hunt?

For a treasure project to be successful, the following elements must be present, following the CCREPPT acronym:

Capital: How much cash you put into the deal.

Contracts: Deals with landowners, governments, etc.

Research: This saves time pinpointing targets.

Equipment: You’ll need adequate items to get the job done, be it a metal detector or a boat.

Permit(s): Without the permits, you don’t have a deal.

Personnel: Your crew, the people who will help you on your journey.

Target(s): The treasure, the goal.

What resources are available to kids who want to learn more about treasure hunting?

A great resource to learn about treasure hunting is to read past and current issues of certain magazines including Gold Prospecting, Lost Treasures, Western and Eastern Treasure, Treasure Hunting, and National Geographic. While a couple of these companies are no longer printing editions, past issues are available online or through your local library, including a retrieval service from other libraries in the United States.

If a kid wants to be a treasure hunter when they grow up, what can they do now to help prepare?

A good starting point is to determine if you wish to concentrate on finding treasure on land or in water. Once that is determined, read all you can on your subject. Maybe you’re interested in gold and silver mines, shipwrecks, or ghost towns. Whatever your subject is, research! The best thing you can do is be curious. If social clubs (online or in person) are available, join them. Share your hobby with your parents. It may become a family affair, and that is a treasure in itself. Happy hunting!

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Ben Lewandowski is a 12-year-old numismatist who enjoys reading, playing Dungeons and Dragons, rock climbing, and word games. He collects cents, German state coins, and presidential medals. You can catch him wearing a nerdy coin shirt while reading a book by Q. David Bowers and attending three coin clubs.

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