1731 Milled 8 Reales ('PA' Vertical)

The Reijgersdaal was a Dutch East India Company ship carrying eight chests of silver coins - nearly 30,000 pieces - when she sank on 25 October 1747 between Robben Island and Dassen Island off the coast of South Africa. After four and a half months at sea, the ship had anchored there to gather fresh provisions, especially rock rabbits or "dassies" (for which Dassen Island is named), in an attempt to relieve the horrific sickness on board. Of the 297 people aboard, about 125 had already died and another 83 were incapacitated. When a gale struck, the anchor line snapped and the ship was driven onto the rocks and wrecked. Only 20 survived.

At the time, only one incomplete chest of coins was recovered; the site was judged too dangerous for systematic salvage. Beginning in 1979, however, modern divers returned to the wreck and recovered thousands of coins - perhaps as many as 15,000 by the early 1980s, before South African protective legislation curtailed large-scale recovery. Those coins have since appeared in auctions and private offerings around the world.

The great majority of the Reijgersdaal coins were Mexican pillar dollars, together with some cobs and a few Guatemala pillar cobs. Mainland Spain milled issues are decidedly scarce from the wreck, which makes this coin especially desirable. It is a 1731 Spanish 8 reales of the early Bourbon "milled" type, with the distinctive "PA" mintmark arranged vertically and the name REIJGERSDAAL noted on the NGC shipwreck label.

The shield side shows the crowned Bourbon arms of Spain with the surrounding royal legend, while the opposite side carries the cross-and-quarters design. Long immersion has left the surfaces rough and granular, and NGC has accordingly certified the piece XF Details, Sea Salvaged - but enough of the central design, shield, crown, denomination, and legends remain bold to make the type and wreck pedigree immediately clear. As a historical object, its appeal lies not in pristine surfaces but in its direct connection to one of the most dramatic VOC wrecks and to the global circulation of Spanish silver in the 18th century.