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War of Jenkins Ear Cost Spain A Million Pieces of EightJenkins Ear? This is a coin story?Absolutely. It’s also a “lost treasure story”, but this time the treasure was lost, not in a hurricane or through faulty navigation, but to enemy action on the high seas. The WarThe War of Jenkins Ear (1739-1748) was a dispute between Britain and Spain over Britain’s right to trade with Spain’s Central American colonies. Spain had outlawed it, but trade at some level continued anyway (as will occur when both sides have benefited.) As evidence of a Spanish crackdown on the practice, a British merchant captain, Robert Jenkins, was relieved of one of his ears through the swordsmanship of a Spanish Coast guardsman.Jenkins, complaining to Parliament, and brandishing a jar containing his pickled ear, stoked the popular outrage sufficient to deploy two English fleets against the Spaniards. One of these was dispatched to the Caribbean, the other down the Pacific Coast of South America, via Cape Horn. Commodore George Anson commanded the fleet heading for the Pacific. Its mission was to harass Spanish shipping, and especially, capture the port of Callao which was the shipping point for the output of Peruvian mines near the mint at Lima. Also, if he got lucky, he might capture one of the substantial Mexican silver and gold shipments to Manila. Anson and the Manila GalleonThe famed Manila Galleon sailed every year or two between Manila in the Philippines and Acapulco on the Mexican west coast. When outbound from Mexico, the ship was called the Acapulco Galleon -- a tempting target of gold and silver coins and bullion.Anson truly wanted that cargo! After a stormy passage around Cape Horn at the southern tip of South America, all of Anson’s ships except his flagship, Centurion, were either lost or had turned back. Centurion was considerably the worse for wear and put into the San Fernandez Islands off Chile for repairs. Returning to sea, Anson's part in The War of Jenkins Ear continued -- but his search for the expected galleon from Acapulco was to no avail. Perhaps he had missed it while laid up for repairs, or the Spanish shipment was held over for a year in the knowledge that an English fleet was in the area. At length, Anson set a course across the Pacific to Macao. From there his plan was to navigate south and west to the Indian Ocean, then home to England via the Cape of Good Hope – a circumnavigation of the globe. But First……one more try for the galleon from Acapulco, which Anson believed could be captured north of the Philippines. Sailing out from Macao, Anson positioned himself to succeed.And so he did – the Spanish being rather surprised to find the English in so remote a location! Upon completion of his four year round the world voyage, the one million Spanish pieces of eight he captured were re-coined in England. To each of these new English coins was added the word “LIMA” – right under George II’s bust -- referring to the original plan for interdiction of silver from the Lima mint. (You can see this on the coin at the top of the page, and in the close-up photo below.)
George II LIMA shilling image courtesy of Goldberg Coins and Collectibles. Go to Top of Jenkins Ear page… Return to Lost Treasure Stories page… Go to Home page…
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