American Colonial Historical Medals (Betts Medals)
1697 Carthagena Captured

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Betts-84/83 Bronze. Struck to commemorate the capture of Cartagena. The capture brought treasure worth an estimated 100 million in today's dollars to the French. Cartagena which also known as Cartagena de las Indias or Cartagena of the Indies, is a large city seaport on the northern coast of Colombia.It was founded about 1533. Cartagena was a key port in the Spanish treasure shipment system. Its defenses repelled several attacks such as Sir Francis Drake in 1533 and Admiral Vernon in 1741, which made its capture by the French in 1697 that much more remarkable. The obverse is a bust of Louis XIV. The reverse translates the treasue of the Spaniards carried away. The bottom translates the American Carthage taken by storm 1697.