Watch List notes:

Potosi, Bolivia, cob 8 reales, 1710Y, very rare and popular provenance, in original frame with certificate and drawing of ship plus new certificate from Barry Clifford. S-P43a; KM-30; CT-1091. 23.50 grams. One of the more important numismatic aspects of the famous Whydah finds is the fact that a relatively large amount of cobs from Lima and Potosi were recovered, perhaps explaining the relative paucity of those coins found from the 1715 Fleet in our time--in other words, the majority of those coins were stolen off the Fleet wrecks by pirates and ended up with Bellamy on the Whydah! This Potosi specimen shows full but off-center pillars with full date and denomination, all in typically crude, "heavy" style, with no surface corrosion but probable edge loss (the other side not visible due to being glued to the mat), all presented in an attractively framed display made for investors in the failed Silver Screen Partners (Bernstein and Betts) operation (mid-1990s) that hoped to greatly expand the Whydah museum and move it to Tampa, Florida. As with all the coins selected for these displays, the certificate mistakenly calls the mint "MEXICO" (also the coin is mounted upside-down), so Barry Clifford and Maritime Explorations, Inc. graciously provided a new certificate for this piece with the mint properly stated; we have left the display intact, however, as a relic of the investment scheme that indirectly brought the otherwise unobtainable Whydah coins to market in recent years. Mounted in a matted picture frame with original Barry Clifford certificate #137746 and color drawing of the ship, with new certificate pasted to back showing correction of mint from Mexico to Potosi. Recovered from: Whydah, sunk in 1717 off Cape Cod, Massachusetts
(6000 - 9000 USD)