On 22nd October the ship, commanded by Captain Edmund Loades and with Admiral Shovell on board, was returning from the Mediterranean after the Toulon campaign. The 21 ships in the squadron entered the mouth of the English Channel at 8pm but, as a result of navigational errors, the ships were not where they were reckoned to be. The Association struck the Outer Gilstone Rock off the Scilly Isles and sank in minutes with the loss of her entire crew of about 800 men. Three other ships (HMS Eagle, HMS Romney and HMS Firebrand) were also lost, bringing the death toll to nearly 2,000. It was one of the greatest maritime disasters in British history. It was largely as a result of this disaster that the Board of the Admiralty instituted a competition for a more precise method to determine longitude.
This particular coin was given to my late father by the marine archaeologist Roland Morris, a family friend and the man who brought up the first treasures from the ship. It's not an original - Morris had a load of them cast and used to give them out as gifts along with his business card.
But why were they called 'Pieces of Eight'?
Coins used to be made from precious metals and were valued by their actual weight (the British pound is so named because of many coins the Romans could make from a single lump of metal weighing one pound). And because coins were hammered by hand, it was a lot of hassle to have lots of different denominations. Therefore, large coins were struck that could be cut into halves, quarters and eight pieces. So a Spanish dollar or Real was called a 'Piece of Eight' as it was a coin worth eight pieces, or bits. Something worth 'two bits' cost 'a quarter ' - terms that are still used in America today.
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