Lost on the Way to New Orleans
In January 1784 the Spanish brig El Cazador left Veracruz for New Orleans carrying roughly 450,000 silver pesos, sent by Charles III of Spain to steady the money supply in Spanish Louisiana. She never arrived. Spain listed her as missing that June, and for more than two hundred years nobody knew where she went down.
In August 1993, a fishing trawler out of Pascagoula, Mississippi, dragged its net about fifty miles south of New Orleans and hauled up Spanish silver. That was El Cazador. Elemetal calls her the Shipwreck That Changed America, after the line historians draw from that lost silver to Spain’s weak hold on Louisiana, which it handed back to France in 1800, three years before the Louisiana Purchase.
This set is ten 2 oz silver rounds honoring that ship, sealed in a tube inside a wooden treasure chest. It is the third release in Elemetal’s four-ship Shipwreck Series.
Charles III in Ultra High Relief
The obverse takes its cue from the coin El Cazador carried, the Spanish 8 reales, the piece of eight. It shows the laureate bust of Charles III facing right, with CAROLUS III DEI GRATIA around the rim and the date 1774 below. One honest footnote: the coins aboard the real ship were struck in Mexico in 1783, so the 1774 date is a design choice, not a match to the cargo.
The reverse is the shared Shipwreck Series design, laid out like a colonial cob with two pillars over the waves and a grid of marks between them: D for Dallas, where Elemetal strikes it, 2 OZ, AG for silver and 999 for the fineness. ANO 2026 runs along the top.
Elemetal strikes both faces in ultra high relief, so the portrait and pillars stand well proud of the field. You notice it in hand more than in a photo.
Worn on Purpose
Look closely and the surfaces are pitted and textured. That weathering is struck in. Elemetal gives the design the look of silver that spent two centuries on the floor of the Gulf, so a rough, grainy field is how these rounds are supposed to look. It is not wear, damage or toning.
These are also not bullion by the ounce. Each round holds 2 troy ounces of .999 silver, but the set sells on its design, its series and its numbered chest, so it carries a premium over melt. If all you want is twenty ounces of silver at the lowest cost, plain rounds will get you there for less. This set is for the stacker or collector who wants the story in the stack.
The Chest
The ten rounds arrive in a white Elemetal tube sealed with purple tape, cushioned in purple crinkle paper inside a wooden chest lined in purple felt. The chest has dark iron straps with round studs, a hinged hasp on the front and a small padlock with its key.
Every chest is engraved with its own number, so no two sets are quite the same.
Specifications
The set holds 20 troy ounces of silver in total: ten rounds of 2 troy ounces each, .999 fine, struck by Elemetal in Dallas. The rounds are new, in ultra high relief with a weathered finish, and the chest is serialized. Full detail is on the Specifications tab.
El Cazador Treasure Chest FAQ
Is this a real Spanish coin from the wreck?
No. These are modern .999 silver rounds struck by Elemetal, a private mint, so they are not legal tender and were never aboard El Cazador. The design is inspired by the 8 reales the ship carried. Genuine coins recovered from El Cazador are a separate collectible altogether.
Why do the rounds look worn?
The weathered texture is part of the design. Elemetal strikes it in to look like recovered shipwreck silver. Your rounds arrive new, and the rough field is exactly how every round in the set looks.
How many El Cazador chests were made?
Elemetal limits the set to 999 chests worldwide, each engraved with a number from 1 to 999. We cannot promise a particular number.
Does the chest actually lock?
Yes. It ships with a small padlock and key that fit the hasp on the front. Think of it as display and gift packaging rather than a security safe.
What else is in the Shipwreck Series?
There are four ships, each with its own obverse and the same pillars reverse: the Atocha, the Batavia, El Cazador and the 1715 Treasure Fleet. El Cazador is the third release.
Collecting the whole fleet? Pick up the and the , the first two ships in Elemetal’s Shipwreck Series.
Twenty ounces of silver and a lost ship’s story, in one numbered chest. Add the El Cazador 2 oz High-Relief Silver Round 10 Piece Tube with Treasure Chest to your cart.