Toll Free 800-650-9030 International 239-948-6915
Order By Fax 239-949-9537
Toll Free 800-650-9030 International 239-948-6915
Order By Fax 239-949-9537
© 2007 Atocha Treasure Company LLC All Rights Reserved
| In 1580, Portugal was annexed to Spain, and shortly alter that date coins minted in the Old World bore the arms of Portugal in the upper middle of the Hapsburg shield. In general, these arms did not appear on New World coins, the one exception being those minted in Santa Fe de Bogota. | |
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Since the consensus of historians is that Felipe Ill was a nincompoop and Felipe V, his son, a numbskull and a lecher, little needs to be said about either or about Felipe IV’s heir, who would be crowned as Carlos II. Alas, poor Carlos was physically even more of a mess than his predecessor of the same name Sickly from infancy (congenital syphilis? Too much inbreeding over too many generations?) he died without issue, no great surprise to his realm, since his celebrated impotence had motivated a popular verse: Three virgins there are in Madrid: The library of our Cardinal, The sword of the Duke of Medina, And our lady the Queen. |
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Thus was precipitated the grand finagling among Austria. France, Germany and England for the choice of the new King of Spain. Spain had married off enough daughters to the crown of France that, in spite of the fact thai each had renounced any rights to the Spanish succession, the final choice went to Philip of Anjou, the first Bourbon ruler of Spain. Although Philip V had to juggle the emblems of the Hapsburg shield around in order to accommodate his own arms (the three fleurs de lis in the smaller shield in the center), all the territories shown in the shield of Felipe II were still represented in 1715. And why not? On that grisly day in the future ol France when Bourbon and Hapsburg blood ran in a single stream down the gutters of Paris, it was not the first time it had mingled. The coins illustrated have been reproduced by Treasure Salvors’ new digitizer-computer and lazer printer, as they will be on the certificates issued for coins to be distributed in the division of the 1985 Atocha recoveries. |
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