Only bought 1 silver to help insure I could get the merchant ships near the start and used a workshop to clear islands and get villages to fuel Nobles engine. Figured that would clog my deck with enough non-money cards to slow pirate ships even as it thinned my deck for me, but would allow me to still pick up a couple provinces when my minimal cash generating actions lined up with my remaining money. I could've bought the last prov on the final turn but went for the last nobles to have pile driven those and the islands.
http://councilroom.com/game?game_id=game-20130102-191751-ecf7176e.html