Are Dark Tide Relics shipwreck coins authentic?

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Dark Tide Relics curates artifacts from the Nuestra Señora de Atocha (1622), Santa Margarita, the 1715 Spanish Treasure Fleet, El Cazador (1784), SS Central America (1857), Maravillas, Concepción, and other documented Spanish colonial and American Gold Rush wrecks.

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Real Casa de la Moneda de Valladolid

City: Valladolid, Spain
Mint mark: Crowned VA (or V)
Years active: Medieval–1680s
Metals: Silver, Gold, Copper
Assayers: — Assayer marks not consistently recorded on Catholic Monarchs issues; A Various (16th-century assayers); D Various (17th-century assayers)

The mint of the old Castilian court city, briefly the Spanish capital under Philip III — a royal mint of the Catholic Monarchs reform that struck coinage through the Habsburg era.

History

Valladolid was one of the most important political centers of Castile throughout the medieval and early modern period. It served briefly as the Spanish capital from 1601 to 1606 under Philip III, before the court returned permanently to Madrid. Its royal mint reflects that status: established in the medieval period, it struck royal coinage into the Habsburg era. It was not, however, among the seven Castilian mints named in the Catholic Monarchs' 1497 Pragmática de Medina del Campo — that list was Burgos, La Coruña, Cuenca, Granada, Segovia, Seville and Toledo — and Valladolid's later output is best understood as intermittent royal minting outside that core group. Valladolid struck silver reales and gold excelentes/escudos under Ferdinand and Isabella, Charles V, Philip II, and the later Habsburgs. The mint's identifying mark is a crowned "VA" monogram — sometimes rendered as a simple "V" — placed in the field of the coin alongside the standard royal devices. Valladolid coinage of the Catholic Monarchs era is sought by collectors as some of the earliest standardized Spanish royal silver. Habsburg-era Valladolid cobs are scarcer than peninsular peers from Seville or Toledo, reflecting the mint's more modest scale of production. Like several of the smaller peninsular mints, Valladolid was wound down in the later 17th century as Spanish minting consolidated around Madrid, Seville, and Segovia. The mint had effectively ceased operations by the 1680s.

Notable features

Court-city mint of medieval and early modern Castile
Distinctive crowned "VA" or "V" mintmark
Struck Catholic Monarchs and Habsburg silver and gold
Operations wound down in the late 17th century as minting consolidated

Coin types

Silver
Silver
Gold

Monarch periods

Ferdinand & Isabella — Struck standardized Castilian reales under the 1497 monetary standard, though Valladolid was not one of the seven mints named in the Pragmática itself.
Charles V — Habsburg arms appear on Valladolid coinage. Mint handles peninsular silver alongside Imperial issues.
Philip II — Steady cob output; Valladolid retains political importance as a former court city.
Philip III — Court relocates to Valladolid (1601–1606) before returning to Madrid. Mint activity peaks during this period.
Philip IV & Charles II — Output declines through the later Habsburg period; operations effectively cease by the 1680s.