Lot # 

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 Lot title and description

Estimate (low-high)

SHIPWRECK INGOTS

"Tumbaga wreck," sunk circa 1528 off Grand Bahama Island

17

Silver disc #M-159. 16.88 pounds (avoirdupois), roughly 10½" in diameter and 1½" thick in center. This huge "torta" (Spanish for round cake, related to the word for "turtle," which is exactly what it looks like) is one of the most impressive of all the "tumbaga" finds, both for its markings (fineness IVCLXX [1170/2400], serial #RC, and assayer B~Vo, as well as two nearly full but faint circular tax seals) and for the fact that over half the (relatively flat) topside shows partially melted drips that contain lots of air pockets, in which you can almost imagine the remnants of the native artifacts that composed these ingots! It is also impressively large, with beautiful satin-silver surfaces. The assayer-mark, which consists of a B and V with a tilde (~) above the B and an o above the V, was originally believed to stand for Bernardino Vasquez, one of Cortez' compatriots in the conquest of Mexico, but as it turns out, that man was never an assayer! We kept this bar personally from the original find, so it has never been for sale until now. With Sedwick photo-certificate from the 1990s.

$4,000 - $6,000

"Golden Fleece wreck," sunk ca. 1550 in the Northern Caribbean

18

Complete, coral-encrusted "finger" bar #39. 1110 grams About 10¼" long, 1" wide, and ¾" thick. Nothing says treasure like a big, long "finger" bar of gold! We have offered many cut bars in the past, but this is one of the few complete ones available. Stamped clearly with fineness XVII (17K) five times (so it could be cut down into five pieces if needed) and loaded with beautiful white coral, which is actually unusual for most shipwreck gold ingots, with a nice butter-yellow color on all the exposed parts, round at both ends (as made), this is surely a premium item that would make a great centerpiece for any serious shipwreck collection. With Sedwick certificate.

$35,000 - $40,000

19

Large cut bar #40. 7592 grams, rectangular, approx. 7¾" x 5" x 1-3/8". Unlike most silver ingots from this wreck, which are thin and round "splashes," this piece is a solid, molded bar—or at least half of one anyway, as one end of it shows a relatively clean cut (chiseled down about halfway and then broken from there), probably parceled for different accounts as was done with so many of the ingots from this wreck (both gold and silver). In effect, it has the look of a slightly more modern ingot (like the big bars from the Atocha and Maravillas, for example), with a large inscribed cipher "P(?)" (owner/shipper's mark?) visible on the top despite harsh corrosion and cleaning, although a more likely scenario is that it is an old "tumbaga" bar cut down and reused. The fineness is unknown, but the bar is quite dense for its size—over 16 pounds of silver! With Sedwick certificate. Estimate:

$4,500 - $5,500  

20

Half-cut round "splash" #C. 1430 grams, about 3½" radius and 5/8" thick in center. This is more typical of the silver ingots from this wreck: Round and crudely manufactured by "splashing" molten silver onto the bare ground. What's neat about this particular "splash" is that it appears to have been poured twice, as the bottom shows a thinner, smaller-diameter "pancake" of silver attached to the main ingot above it. It was also cut in half, which is typical, with this half showing a fineness marking of IIU CCC L x (2360/2400 = 98.3% fine) in boxes on the topside. It is also typically corroded and cleaned, with lots of gray and gold color mixed in, and a small part of the round edge shows some stress from bending, the opposite (straight) side chiseled about halfway down and then broken from there. With Sedwick certificate.

$1,250 - $1,750