This coin commemorates Columbus's calculated use of a lunar eclipse on February 29, 1504, during his fourth voyage. Stranded on Jamaica and facing starvation after local Arawak people stopped supplying his crew, Columbus consulted his almanac — Regiomontanus's Ephemeris — which predicted the eclipse. He warned the Arawak that God would punish them with a blood moon, and when it arrived on schedule, they capitulated immediately. The crew was provisioned until rescue came in June 1504.
This coin commemorates Columbus's calculated use of a lunar eclipse on February 29, 1504, during his fourth voyage. Stranded on Jamaica and facing starvation after local Arawak people stopped supplying his crew, Columbus consulted his almanac — Regiomontanus's Ephemeris — which predicted the eclipse. He warned the Arawak that God would punish them with a blood moon, and when it arrived on schedule, they capitulated immediately. The crew was provisioned until rescue came in June 1504.