In popular folklore pirate treasure would mean sea chests overflowing with pieces of eight, plundered diamonds and other exotic jems... but this was not usually the case. Although it may have been their goal to do so, most western pirates mainly attempted to attack lightly armed merchant ships. They normally came away with booty like a few bales of silk or cotton, some barrels of rum or tobacco, carpentry and navigation tools. Maybe spare canvas for sail, rope, food, medicine, weapons, and a few pieces of eight. They might also try and recruit new members from their captives or perhaps just take the entire ship as a prize.

    Although buried treasure has been a favorite theme in the pirate stories of fiction, there are very few documented examples of real pirates who buried their plunder. Most pirates preferred to spend their booty in an orgy of drinking, gambling, and whoring when they returned to port. In the Golden Age of Piracy the great riches of the Spanish Main are what attracted many pirates to that area of the world. It has been calculated that when the Spanish treasure fleet made its annual visit to Portobello to load up the treasure from Peru, there was likely to be 25 million pesos in silver bars and coins in the town. (This was twice the annual revenue of the King of England at that time) As you can imagine the rewards of piracy could be fantastic and some daring pirates acquired enormous wealth. But the kind of 'treasure' taken by pirates differed all over the world.