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reverse (back) |
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Shipwreck Pirates Cob Before the days of the machine stamped coin, coins were crudely made by hand, called cobs. They were made by striking a blank with a die, creating the impression on the obverse and reverse (front and back) and then after being weighed, excess was cut away, along with some of the impression... giving each and every cob its own irregular shape. The Spanish colonial pirate cob is cast in sterling silver. The original bronze cob was excavated from a medieval sunken pirate ship. The cob was issued during the reigns of Philip II-IV in the seventeenth century, likely Maravedis of Philip III mint in 1605. There is a lion on the obverse and a castle on the reverse, to illustrate the provinces of Leon and Castile. |
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obverse (front) 
