Bermuda Coins 30 Dollars Gold Coin 2007 Shipwreck Series, the San Pedro.
Obverse: Portrait by sculptor Ian Rank-Broadley of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in profile, together with the inscription "BERMUDA", "ELIZABETH II" and the respective year "2007".
Reverse: The sailing ship San Pedro, Spanish merchant vessel of the 16th century in the centre and the circumferential lettering with the inscriptions “SAN PEDRO”, “Anno Domini 1595”, a depiction of a hog, and the denomination “THIRTY DOLLARS”;
A treasure ship from the Spanish colonial period, the San Pedro was part of the Nueva Espana fleet which carried manufactured goods from Spain to the New World and returned with gold, silver, coins, jewels and other valuable products.
It was in November 1596, en route from Cartagena, Columbia to Cadiz, Spain, and laden with treasure, that the 350-ton merchant ship was wrecked on Bermuda’s inner reef.
She was discovered in 1950 by veteran shipwreck diver, Teddy Tucker and Robert Canten. Tucker knew that she was old and named her ‘The Old Spaniard’. However, it was only when he started to work on the site that he realised the true significance of his find.
Among the treasures he recovered was a gold pectoral cross with seven emeralds, said to be one of the most valuable pieces of jewellery retrieved from any Spanish shipwreck. Other items included a thirty-two ounce gold bar, two small gold ingots, a bronze mortar, a navigating instrument, a pewter porringer, tools, Chinese ceramic, glazed pottery, French coins, an ostrich egg, pearl-studded gold buttons and race Carib Indian weapons. It was the first major treasure recovery as well as the most significant Tudor period find of the twentieth century.