“Golden Fleece wreck,” sunk ca. 1550 in the northern Caribbean 

This wreck was nicknamed for a royal stamping (“Golden Fleece”) on several of the gold “finger” bars (ingots) it yielded. Except for a handful of extremely rare Santo Domingo pieces, all the coins from this wreck were Mexican Carlos-Juana silver coins (all assayers prior to S), including several rarities, the most important being three specimens of the Rincón “Early Series” 8 reales of 1538, the very first 8 reales ever struck in the New World (the best of which achieved a record in 2006 for the highest amount ever paid at auction for a Spanish colonial coin:  $373,750!). To date the finders of the wreck have not identified the wreck or disclosed its exact location, but they have gone on record as stating it was in international waters in the northern Caribbean. Though it was a relatively small find (a few thousand coins at most), it has been the primary source for Mexican Carlos-Juana coins on the market since the mid-1990s.

Perhaps more impressive than the coins from this wreck are the few dozen gold and silver ingots in has yielded, all of which have entered the market exclusively through Daniel Frank Sedwick. The varying purities of these bars are reminiscent of the "tumbaga" bars (see above), although the later gold ingots do seem to have been cast in somewhat standard shapes (“fingers”) and sizes. The silver ingots from this wreck, popularly known as “splashes,” were simply poured onto the ground, leaving a round, flat mound of silver that was subsequently stamped with a tax stamp (in the form of a crowned C for King Charles I) and/or a fineness in the usual block Roman numerals in parts per 2400, much like the karat system we use today. The gold ingots also show a fineness marking (but no tax stamps or other markings) in parts per 24, with a dot being a quarter karat. Silver or gold, many of the ingots from this wreck were cut into two or more parts, presumably to divide into separate accounts. We believe these "Golden Fleece wreck" ingots are the only known examples made in the colonies between the "tumbaga" period of the 1520s and the specimens found on the 1554 Fleet at Padre Island, Texas (note, in fact, that the very few gold bars recovered from the Texas wrecks were marked with the same punches as some of the gold bars from this slightly earlier wreck).