3-089-927 - ©National Museum of Wales/Heritage Images

Doble excelente of Ferdinand and Isabella, Spanish, c1479-1504. Obverse showing the Catholic Monarchs - Queen Isabella I of Castile (ruled 1474-1504) and King Ferdinand II of Aragon (ruled 1479-1516). Doble excelente or double-ducat 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.