Majority of these pieces found locally have in all likelihood been recovered

from a shipwreck, somewhere off the coast of South Africa.

The most famous of these, wrecks, being the Johanna and the Fame.

The Johanna was the first English East Indiaman ship to be wrecked on the

South African coastline. She was outward bound for Surat, India. She was

lost at 4am on the 8th of June 1682 with the principal cargo of 72 000

pounds of silver 70 chests of pieces-of-eight and silver bullion.

The Spanish eight reale, or andquot;pieces of eightandquot; were coveted by the Kings

men as well as pirates. Also referred to as andquot;Cobsandquot;, they were cut from

bullion plate trimmed to the requisite weight; heated and hand-hammered

between crudely engraved dies. Authorities were unconcerned that as a

result of the rough surface the legends were frequently missing or only

partially visible.

Most pieces recovered from our oceans were extracted around 300 years

after the ship sank.

Please note that no 2 pieces are the same.