Artigo - Treasure of the Rio Formoso:

Treasure of the Rio Formoso: Seventeenth-Century Brazilian Siege Pieces

originally published on another site, June 1997, and with minor changes Sept 1999 and January 2005, this esay is by now overdue for revision.

In the late 1620s and early 1630s, the Geoctroyeerde Westindische Compagnie (the Dutch "Chartered West-Indian Company") seized large tracts of the Portuguese colony of Brazil, from the mouth of the Amazon to beyond Salvador/Bahia (which was then the capital), with a view to obtaining large profits from growing and processing sugar cane there. They called this territory "New Holland".

From 1637 to 1644 this was under the leadership of Prince John Maurice of Orange-Nassau, who made Recife his capital. Although things went well for them at first, the Portuguese, newly independent after 60 years of Spanish rule, fought back, and besieged Recife from 1644 to 1654, when the Dutch surrendered and were driven out of the country.

Meanwhile the Dutch there had a shortage of money to pay for supplies and wages (including of mercenary soldiers). In their ships in the harbour were some 1251 marks of gold (about 308 kilograms) from Guinea, 50 marks of which they sold at auction; but this did not raise nearly enough money, especially bearing in mind local price inflation. So in the mid 1640s they decided to convert some 715 marks or so into obsidional money (siege pieces) of approximately square "klippe" format, a type that had been very familiar to many of them since the 1560s during and following the revolt of the Netherlands against Spanish rule. Starting in January 1654, literally days before the surrender, they made uniface silver coins from 23 pounds (some 11.32 kg) of plate supplied by two prominent citizens.

Outside of the Company’s archives, the earliest known mention of these coins is from volume 2 of Gerard van Loon’s Beschryving der Nederlandsche Historipenningen ("Description of the Dutch Historical Coins/Medals"), published in four volumes in The Hague in the 1720s. A five-volume French version, Histoire Metallique des [XVII Provinces des] Pays Bas, was published there in the 1730s.

The gold coins, dated 1645 and 1646, were of denominations 3, 6 and 12 florins or gulden.

The obverse had a mark of value (in Roman numerals) above "GWC" monogram, in a beaded circle.

On the reverse appeared the legend ANNO / BRASIL' / 1645 (or 1646), also in a beaded circle. Julius Meili, in Die Münze der Colonie Brasilien 1645 bis 1822 (Zürich, 1895), also mentions a copper specimen. [The spelling Colonie not Kolonie was correct at that time!]

The company’s archives show that quite a number of dies were used, and also that company headquarters in the Hague forbade the use of the gold in this manner, because it was required in the Netherlands.

The uniface silver coins of 1654 had the mark of value (also in Roman numerals) above and date below the "GWC" monogram, in a beaded circle. Although the company’s archives specify pieces of 10, 20, 30 and 40 stuivers (1 florin or gulden = 20 stuivers), van Loon shows only a 12-stuiver piece. Opinion is sharply divided over whether all 5 values are legitimate, or just some - and which!

There are far fewer of these coins known than the quantities of metal would indicate, and the prices reflect this. For example, Sotheby’s sale of Brazilian coins in Geneva in 1987 included one each of the above six gold coins, all recovered from the wreck of the Utrecht, sunk in a battle in late 1648 (on 28th September according to the auction catalogue, but Varnhagen attributes the account to Schkopp’s log of 19th December) at the entrance to the Baía de Todos os Santos (All Saints’ Bay) near Salvador; the prices realised ranged from 12,000 to 30,000 Swiss Francs (plus 10% buyer’s premium). Not surprisingly, there have been reports of forgeries of these coins.

In 1967, during land grading for the construction of the state highway PE-1 (now part of the federal BR-101), a clay pot was broken and unearthed by an excavator near the coastal town of Rio Formoso, close to the river of that name and about 25 miles from Recife. This contained many hundreds, perhaps over a thousand, of square pieces of metal encrusted with some black substance. Although at first dismissed as sugar-mill tokens, they were later identified as being these siege pieces, and were first publicised in 1977. They included the pieces mentioned above, also undated silver coins of all 5 values, gold coins of a hitherto unknown date (1647), what appear to be 24-florin coins (thus accounting for the enigmatic "dies of 24" mentioned in the archives), and a large number of specimens in copper. There were also some stamped bars (in all three metals), which raise far more questions than they answer.

Opinion in Brazil is sharply divided as to the authenticity of this hoard, with several books (of varying opinions) having been written on the matter, some better researched and/or presented than others. However, most are written from a strongly partisan viewpoint, and cannot therefore give a full picture.

It may be that we will never know the true picture - but I intend to get as close as I can to it over the coming years!

Fonte: http://www.heraldstar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/botija.htm