As with Spanish silver, Spanish gold coinage was sought throughout the world. The basic gold coin was the eight escudo piece, often called a doubloon. In 1537 eight escudos was set at 27.4680 grams of .92 fine gold (22-carat gold). In 1728 the weight was reduced to 27.06429 grams, and then in 1772 the fineness was reduced to .90103. Thus, over some 250 years the fineness and weight of Spanish gold coins changed only slightly, attesting to the stability of its value and its function as a standard by which other coins were measured.
In the New World Spanish colonies several major deposits of gold were discovered, especially in Columbia. These finds required local mints to produce gold coins and ingots for shipment to Spain. As with the silver during the early period, cob coinage was minted. Gold cobs were first produced in 1622 at Santa Fe de Bogotá, Colombia, followed by Mexico City in 1679 and Lima, Peru, in 1696. The first milled gold coinage, often referred to as portrait gold, was minted in Mexico in 1732. The production of gold cobs continued until 1750, after which time they were completely replaced by milled coinage. Also in that year a new mint was opened in Santiago, Chile, which primarily produced gold coins.
The ratio of gold to silver coin production in the Spanish mints can be gleaned from the salvage remains of a treasure fleet of eleven Spanish galleons that were destroyed by a hurricane in 1715 off the east coast of Florida, near the mouth of the Saint Sebastian River not far from present day Cape Canaveral. The State of Florida has claimed twenty-five percent of all the salvaged treasure from this fleet and to date they have acquired about sixty thousand silver cobs and about fifteen hundred gold cobs which is a ratio of 40:1. For additional information on Spanish shipwrecks click here.

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