Treasures of the Spanish Main Traditional Cache
Treasures of the Spanish Main
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(small)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
The Florida Keys are filled with Spanish Treasure Wrecks
Smuggling of unregistered treasure was one of the most frustrating problems the Spanish Crown was confronted with throughout the three centuries. This geocache uses a technique commonly used by smugglers. Go back in time as you find "hidden" treasure.
Spanish Main
Between 1492, Columbus's discovery of the "New World," and 1820, the Spaniards established and maintained colonies in the "Indies." Initially, it was thought that these lands bordered India. During this time, a steady harvest of precious metals and jewels flowed from Central and South America back to Spain. Overall, the amount of gold and silver excavated from the mines of the colonies over those three centuries was somewhere between 6 and 8 billion pesos. A large amount of treasure was never registered to avoid taxation.
The silver bullion came in bars and wedges. Gold bullion came in bars and roughly poured cakes and weighed several ounces, up to 70 pounds. Gold coins were called escudos, or doubloons, and the silver coins were called reales, or pieces of eight. Both gold and silver coins were minted in denominations of 8, 4, 2, 1, and 1/2 units.
Smuggling of unregistered treasure was one of the most frustrating problems the Spanish Crown was confronted with throughout the three centuries. This geocache uses a technique commonly used by smugglers. Go back in time as you find hidden treasure.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Uvqqra va gur obeqre
Treasures
You'll collect a digital Treasure from one of these collections when you find and log this geocache:
Loading Treasures