1701 Lima 8 Reales Cob – Association Shipwreck

Item #CC-0289 | 1701 Lima 8 Reales Cob – Association Shipwreck
Mint:  Lima, Peru
Assayer: H “Francisco Hurtado”
Ruler/Period: King Philip V
Weight: 24.86 grams

Description: This Lima 8 reales was salvaged from the HMS Association, which was a 90 gun British warship that wrecked off the Isles of Scilly in 1707.

The Sinking:

In October 1707, the Association, commanded by Captain Edmund Loades and with Admiral Shovell on board, was returning from the Mediterranean after the Toulon campaign. The 21 ships in the squadron entered the mouth of the English Channel on the night of 22 October 1707. At 8 pm, Association struck the Outer Gilstone Rock off the Isles of Scilly, and was wrecked with the loss of her entire crew of about 800 men. As a result of navigational errors, the ships were not where they were reckoned to be. Association was seen by those on board HMS St. George to go down in three or four minutes’ time. Among the dead were Captain Loades and Admiral Shovell, his stepsons Sir John Narborough and James Narborough (sons of Shovell’s wife from her marriage to Rear Admiral Sir John Narbrough) as well as Henry Trelawney, second son of the Bishop of Winchester. Captain Loades was the son of Rear Admiral Narbrough’s sister. Three other ships (HMS Eagle, HMS Romney and HMS Firebrand) were also lost, bringing the death toll to nearly 2,000. The Scilly naval disaster was one of the greatest maritime disasters in British history. It was largely as a result of this disaster that the Board of the Admiralty instituted a competition for a more precise method to determine longitude. There is a memorial depicting the sinking of the Association in the church at the Narboroughs’ home of Knowlton near Dover.

According to the September, 1974 W.H. Lane Auction catalog, this coin is the only known example of a 1701 Lima 8 reales recovered from the wreck. Most of the coins recovered were British crowns, half crowns, and shillings. Lima coinage from this period are highly prized in any condition, and are amongst the most sought after of the New World coinage. This piece has great centering, with a visible date, assayer’s initial and near full cross.

The coin comes with the certificate of authenticity, but not the auction catalog.

For more information on the history of the HMS Association, visit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Association