Watch List notes:

Gold "finger" bar, 713 grams, marked with fineness XVI• (16.25K), encrusted with coral as from the "Golden Fleece wreck" (ca. 1550). 7-3/4" x 1" x 1/2". With two fineness markings peeking out through heavy white coral encrustation (and one more presumably buried inside), one end neatly sliced halfway and broken the rest of the way (typical), this piece is a rather eye-catching specimen (for both size and beauty) from this mysterious wreck that is known for being the single largest source of Mexican Charles-Joanna coins on the market in our time, in a period when gold coins were not yet made in the New World and "oro corriente" was being phased out. From the "Golden Fleece wreck" (ca. 1550). ($35000-70000)