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Description:

This is a genuine silver coin salvaged from the treasure galleon Nuestra Señora de las Maravillas "Our Lady of Miracles". On New Year's Day 1656, The Maravillas set sail from Havana along with 22 armed warships bound for Spain. She carried over five million pesos of treasure, including much of the silver salvaged from the Capitana that wrecked in 1654 off Ecuador. Also onboard was a 400-pound, solid-gold statue of the Virgin Mary holding the baby Jesus commissioned by King Philip IV.
On January 4th, 1656, the Spanish Fleet was caught in a terrible storm. The Maravillas drifted off course and into shallow reefs surrounding the Bahamas. In the pitch dark, another ship in the fleet collided with the Maravillas, forcing the captain to try to ground the ship on a nearby reef on Little Bahama Bank. In the ensuing chaos, all but 45 of the 650 passengers on board the Maravillas perished and the wreckage was scattered.
In the following years, Spanish salvagers recovered almost half of the registered treasure. Forgotten for over 3 centuries, the shipwreck and her treasure was re-discovered by Robert Marx in August 1972. The second big modern salvage effort on the Maravillas was by Herbert Humphreys in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Many believe that a large amount of the treasure including the gold statue is still to be found!