The Buccaneer Trading Company's Pick of the Month

A 1966 first edition of Kip Wagners book

In 1966 Kip Wagner, with the help of L.B.Taylor, wrote Pieces of Eight which became one of the best classic treasure salvage tales. Wagner describes how he first thought the encrusted silver coins were odd shaped shells and tossed them back into the sea. Sometimes he even found them to be easy candidates to skip along the ocean surface. When he realized what they were he began picking them up from the shoreline. Later investing in a metal detector, he began searching the area around his summer home on Vero Beach and found hundreds of these shipwreck coins. He then went on further to search the surrounding offshore water realizing that they must have come from a local shipwreck of Spanish origin being that the coins bore the Spanish coat of arms. The find came at a time when these coins were relatively unknown and unpopular. They did not have a specific market. In fact there were no books dedicated to these types of coins. They were essentially forgotten coinage preserved in the time capsule of a sunken Spanish Treasure ship that ended in tragedy on the reefs of the Florida gold coast.

Title page with a Royal as the frontispiece

The frontispiece is a gold imperial eight-escudo coin. This beautiful coin is extremely rare and maintains great importance among the numismatic community. Pieces of Eight tells the story of how Kip Wagner and a group of treasure salvors teamed to excavate this wreck and others that suffered a similar fate. A project that would begin the modernization of underwater archeology and treasure hunting.

Gold jewlery recovered by the Real Eight divers

The book contains various images of artifacts found by Wagner and the salvage team. Some of which are priceless glimpses into the past. It is the first book dedicated to the loss of the 1715 Spanish Plate fleet.

Archaelogical chart of the remains of the wreck

Sketched diagrams and charts map out the remains of the sunken treasure ship which is the source for the silver and gold bullion. Among the finds are cannon, ballast, timber and human artifacts such as jewelry, weapons and cutlery.

The Real Eight team

Throughout the 222pages, Pieces of Eight tells a story of adventure and true treasure hunting. Early tools and methods are discussed using photos and diagrams. Included are 24 pages with 20 color and 14 black and white photos. There is a one full-page map in text along with 5 plans & several diagrams and charts. A classic among treasure hunting libraries.

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