I was thinking back the other day to some of the places I had visited back when I was living in the Caribbean. Then I realized I hadn't yet talked about Jamaica... not sure how I missed that one! I've only been there once on a weekend trip with Jackie, who was my girlfriend and the time. Needless to say there was no diving or fishing on this trip, just lots and lots of shopping!
I did manage to find a coin shop while we were shopping and I picked up a couple of cool coins. My favorite had to be this one. It's commemorates Sir Henry Morgan becoming Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica in 1674. He was also a legendary pirate!
About the coin:
Country: Jamaica
Mint: The Franklin Mint, Pennsylvania, USA
Year: 1974
Mintage: 42.000
Strike type: Silver Proof
Denomination: Ten Dollars
Composition: silver 92.5%
Weight: 42.8 grams
Diameter: 45 mm
Edge: Reeded
Obverse: Coat of arm of Jamaica with lettering: JAMAICA TEN DOLLARS 1974 OUT OF MANY ONE PEOPLE FM
Reverse: Sir Henry Morgan with lettering: LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR OF JAMAICA 1674 SIR HENRY MORGAN
It's a very cool coin, produced by the Franklin Mint. One of my favorites in my collection!
thefamouspeople.com
Morgan was one serious badass. Born in Wales in around 1635, not much is known about his youth. It's believed he arrived in the Caribbean either with the forces sent by Oliver Cromwell in 1655 to take Jamaica as a British territory or shortly thereafter. He became a privateer, essentially a legalized pirate given a letter of marque to attack Spanish ships and steal whatever riches they were able. Apparently he impressed the commanders because before long he was the head of the privateer fleet, equivalent to an Admiral.
Morgan soon realized that taking Spanish ships wasn't all that profitable since a portion had to be shared with the governor of Jamaica. The remaining plunder had to be split with his fellow privateers. So he set his sight on Spanish cities. Although it was a gray area not implicitly stated in his letter marque, Morgan justified the attacks stating that the Spanish were planning to attack Jamaica. The advantage to attacking cities is that any plunder taken didn't have to be split with the governor and there was a lot more of it!
In 1668 Morgan and a multinational group of privateers set sight on Portobelo in modern day Panama. It was the third strongest Spanish city full of silver from Central and South America. It was guarded by three castles which were easily taken in a pre dawn attack as well as the town. The took all the riches they could find, and then Morgan ransomed the city back to the governor of Panama for an additional 100,000 silver pesos.
His next target was the Maracaibo in modern Venezuela which was located on an inland lake connected to the ocean. The Spanish fortifications were poorly manned and after landing the they found the place deserted. They took all the plunder they could, tracked down the villagers that had fled and tortured them to reveal the hiding spots of the rest of the riches. Morgan then plundered another city across the lake, and while preparing to sail found themselves trapped as Spanish ships arrived and fortified Maracaibo with more firepower. After negotiations failed with the Spanish they attacked and destroyed the largest ship and captured another. But they still had to sneak by the heavily fortified land canons. His solution was a cunning escape at night letting the tide carry them past Maracaibo without any sails to give them away and made it through unscathed.
There were several other cities plundered before setting sights on the city of Panama. They easily beast the defenses only to find the city was burned to the ground by the governor rather than them capture the city. Just prior to this attack England and Spain had signed a peace treaty. Morgan was arrested and sent to London for the attack. He denied any knowledge of the treaty at the time of attack and wasn't charged, instead they made him a knight since he was considered a national hero for his successful attacks on Spain.
He returned to Jamaica as Lt. Governor. He greatly fortified Port Royal in Jamaica making near impossible to capture. Even though privateering was no longer legal his privateering fleet continued to attack ships using permission from the French, and continued to pay Morgan his cut. Best of both worlds, government official and paid by the pirates as well!
He retired to a large plantation living in wealth and comfort for the rest of his days until his death in 1688. He is one of the few pirates that lived long enough to enjoy his riches and died a non violent death. He is remembered as a hero in both England and Jamaica, thus his own commemorative coin.
As long as we're talking about Jamaica I thought I would thrown in some music, first a little Bob Marley, "I Shot The Sherriff"
And although this has absolutely nothing to do with Henry Morgan, it's a lot of fun. This comes from Futurama, Hermes' bureaucrat/ Jamaica song:
I hope you enjoyed my post today. Sir Henry Morgan was one of the greatest pirates of the Caribbean! If you have any suggestions, comments, or questions please feel free to leave them below. Thank you for all of your support!
Keep on stacking!
And my disclaimer:
Gold and silver stacking can be a fun hobby but isn't for everyone. You can lose money. I'm not a financial advisor and this isn't financial advice, please always do your own research before spending your hard earned money.
The video links I am sharing are not mine, I am only sharing the link to the copyright owner's video. No copyright infringement is intended.
Used under fair-use section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976.
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Morgan
https://www.worldhistory.org/Henry_Morgan/
https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces38658.html
Re-blog lottery
Now for the winner of the re-blog lottery! Today we had 23 people re-blog my post, thank you so much! You guy are the best! The people who re-blogged were:
Voluntary daily reminder list for those who request to be on it:
If you want to be added to the list as well just feel free to ask!
Thank you everyone! I have been working to improve my engagement and all of you have really helped out! If you have any recommendations or suggestions please feel free to let me know. I'm always looking to improve my posts.
Good luck to everyone!
And since I didn't post yesterday today I will do two spins of the wheel, so two winners today!
And the Wheel of Names results:
Congratulations
You will receive 3 HSBI units!
Now for today's re-blog lottery! You just need to re-blog my post you will be placed on the Wheel of Names for a spin to possibly win 3 HSBI units! Just one prize for the lucky winner. An upvote is not required but is always greatly appreciated. Bots aren't allowed to win the prize. Contest ends at 14:00 (2 PM) California Pacific time tomorrow. If I somehow missed your re-blog please let me know and I'll add you to the next draw.
What are HSBI units? They are units that you can purchase to sponsor someone and you in turn receive a unit as well. This way we both benefit! They give you occasional upvotes on your posts for a lifetime, and the more you accumulate the more often you receive upvotes and the bigger they can be. You can read some more here:
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