For more than four centuries, a small silver coin lay undisturbed beneath a stone at the southern edge of the Americas, marking the exact spot where a Spanish colony had been founded — and where it would soon collapse into tragedy. Now, archaeologists have recovered that coin precisely where sixteenth-century written records said it would be, offering a rare and striking convergence of documentary history and physical evidence at one of South America's most ill-fated colonial sites.Image credit: Алик Фатхутдинов
The Discovery
The coin was found tucked beneath the cornerstone of a church built at the founding of Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe, a Spanish colony established at the southern tip of Chile. It had remained in the exact spot it occupied for 440 years, placed there by colony founder and Spanish navigator Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa on 25 March 1584, as part of a ceremonial ritual marking the settlement's establishment.
Researchers employed high-precision geolocation systems combined with advanced metal detection to map the site and identify areas most likely to yield significant finds. One such location proved to hold the coin, discovered within the remains of the colony's founding church, resting on a stone in the very position described in Sarmiento's own historical writings on the Strait of Magellan.
What Archaeologists Found
The silver coin, known as a real de a ocho, was minted in Potosí, in what is now Bolivia, and bears a Jerusalem cross on one face and the coat of arms of King Philip II on the other. Coins of this type circulated widely across Europe, the Americas and Asia, making them among the first truly global currencies of their era.
According to a joint translated statement from Chile's Center for Historical Studies and Humanities and the Austral University of Chile, the coin was recovered in the precise location and position Sarmiento described in his own account of the Strait of Magellan settlement — resting on the surface of a stone within the small church the colonists had built. This discovery builds on earlier work using Sarmiento's writings: in 2019, researchers used the same historical records to locate two bronze cannons at the colony site, and the coin's discovery further reinforces the accuracy of his documented account.
Historical Background
Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe was established amid escalating rivalry between Spain and England over control of South America, as both powers recognised the strategic value of securing the sea passage at the continent's southern tip. Spain claimed territory on both sides of the strait and established the colony there, hoping to consolidate its hold over this crucial maritime route.
The settlement's fortunes, however, proved disastrous. Harsh conditions at "the ends of the Earth" led to the loss of most of the roughly 350 original settlers within just a few years of the colony's founding, and the settlement survived for less than three years in total. When English navigator Thomas Cavendish passed through the area around three years later, he renamed the site Puerto del Hambre, or "Port of Famine," in grim reference to the devastation that had befallen its inhabitants. Over the following centuries, the precise location of the colony gradually faded into historical obscurity, remaining known only as a reference within surviving documents.
Scientific Analysis
The combination of documentary and archaeological evidence at the heart of this discovery is what researchers consider particularly significant. Soledad Gonzalez Diaz, lead researcher on the project and a historian at Bernardo O'Higgins University in Santiago, has described the find as offering a rare and powerful point of convergence between written historical sources and physical archaeological evidence — helping to confirm not only the location of the coin itself but the broader layout of key structures within the settlement.
This alignment between Sarmiento's sixteenth-century account and the excavated remains opens new possibilities for reconstructing the colony's spatial organisation more broadly, potentially guiding future investigation of other structures known to have existed at the site, including houses and storage areas, some of which still appear on a surviving sixteenth-century map of the settlement.
Why This Discovery Matters
Beyond confirming the precise location of the colony's foundation, the coin offers valuable insight into the economic and symbolic world of early Spanish colonial expansion. As a globally circulating currency minted in one of the Spanish Empire's most important silver-producing centres, the coin reflects the vast trading networks that connected even a remote and short-lived outpost like Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe to the wider Spanish colonial economy.
The find also demonstrates the value of combining historical documentation with modern archaeological survey techniques, offering a model for how written accounts can be used to guide precise, targeted excavation rather than broad, speculative searching.
What's Next?
With the coin's discovery providing a confirmed and precisely located starting point, researchers are now positioned to expand their investigation of the wider settlement, focusing on structures such as houses and storage buildings depicted on the surviving sixteenth-century map. Continued excavation is expected to further clarify how the colony was laid out and how its inhabitants lived during their brief and ultimately tragic time at the site.
Conclusion
A single silver coin, buried beneath a stone for 440 years, has helped confirm the precise location of one of colonial South America's most tragic and long-forgotten settlements. As researchers continue to build on this discovery, Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe — once reduced to little more than a name in historical documents and grimly renamed "Port of Famine" by those who came after — is gradually being restored to the map through the careful combination of archival research and archaeological science.
FAQ
Q: What was the coin, and where was it found? A: A ceremonial silver real de a ocho, found beneath the cornerstone of the founding church of Ciudad del Rey Don Felipe, at the southern tip of Chile.
Q: Who placed the coin, and when? A: Spanish navigator and colony founder Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa placed it on 25 March 1584, during the colony's founding ceremony.
Q: What happened to the colony? A: Harsh conditions led to the loss of most of its roughly 350 settlers within a few years, and the colony lasted less than three years before being abandoned.
Q: Why was the site later called "Port of Famine"? A: English navigator Thomas Cavendish renamed it Puerto del Hambre around three years after founding, following the destruction of the settlement's population.
Q: How was the coin's exact location determined? A: Researchers used high-precision geolocation and metal detection, guided by Sarmiento's own written account describing where the coin was placed.
