3-089-962 - ©National Museum of Wales/Heritage Images

Silver coins and gold doble excelente of Ferdinand and Isabella, Spanish, c1479-1504. Coins from the wreck of the 'Ann Francis', a chance find on Margam Beach in Wales, in 1989. On 28 December 1583, the Ann Francis, belonging to the King's Lynn merchant Francis Shaxton, ran aground on Margam Beach. She was promptly plundered by the local inhabitants. The money was probably the proceeds of selling a cargo of grain in Spain and/or Portugal. The silver coins, of types that were by now obsolete, acted simply as silver bullion, which in normal circumstances would have been taken to the Mint in London to be converted into coin of the British realm. The ship lost its way on the return leg of the voyage and the silver never made it to London.