Blackbeard: Silver Treasure Coin from the Golden Age of Piracy (album) (half real) (BLACKBEARDALB-HALF)

Piracy in the Caribbean arose because of a perfect storm of events—including a literal perfect storm. First, the War of Spanish Succession, a “World War Zero” that saw the major European powers enjoined in battle for a dozen years, ended in 1714, leaving thousands of seasoned seamen suddenly unemployed. Sailors who worked on merchant ships, meanwhile, were treated like slaves, and were happy to leave their employers for better work. Finally, the Spanish “treasure fleet” of 1715 was lost to a hurricane off the coast of Florida, with all that gold and silver lost to the vasty deep. A loose confederation of pirates launched a raid on Spanish divers trying to salvage the treasure, a group that included notorious figures like Henry Jennings, Black Sam Bellamy, Benjamin Hornigold, and Edward Teach, better known by his nickname: Blackbeard.--Blackbeard was a shrewd, calculating leader who spurned the use of violence, relying instead on his fearsome image and reputation to terrify those he plundered. He stole so much gold and silver that he ran his ship, the Queen Anne’s Revenge, aground, and briefly retired to Bath, North Carolina. This Spanish silver coin, a “land find,” was probably the buried treasure of Blackbeard or another Caribbean pirate.