Watch List notes:

Cut gold "tejuelo" piece with crowned-CA tax stamp for Charles I of Spain, 42.08 grams, from a 1500s wreck off the northern coast of South America. 1" x 1/2" x 1/2". Rectangular cross-section cut of a flat "finger" bar, very important for showing the entire tax stamp, whose design of a crowned CA above a two-branch pomegranate had not been seen prior to two other specimens in our Auction #13 and almost certainly refers to manufacture in Colombia (New Granada), the two perpendicular cuts very neat (not broken), with much smaller cut in one corner as well, possibly to regulate the piece down to exactly 12 escudos (one and a half onzas, a coin-like size in any case), with traces of dark encrustation around details. From an unidentified 1500s wreck off the northern coast of South America, with photo-certificate, and pedigreed to our Auction #14 (lot #297).
($6000-9000)