Watch List notes:

Small silver ingot, 44.43 grams, with crowned cross-lions-castles tax stamp (Mexico or Santo Domingo), very rare, from the "Power Plant wreck" (late 1500s). About 1-3/4" x 1-3/4" x 1/4". As described in the book Spanish Treasure Bars, by Craig and Richards (2003), for at least 60 years beachcombers on the east coast of Florida in the vicinity of a nuclear power plant have found Mexican Philip II coins and small, flat ingots of varying weights like this one, with markings of crowned cross with lions and castles in upper quadrants and G and pecten shell in lower quadrants and with globes at the ends of the cross in a distinctly Mexican style that was mimicked on the extremely rare Santo Domingo coins of the late 1500s. Because all these mysterious ingots are small (up to 70 grams or so), we feel they must have been a form of "plata corriente" like we know of for the mid-1500s, especially with their official markings to show taxation. This specimen of average size and roughly semicircular shape bears a nearly full stamp on its smooth side (the other side rough and corroded and with brownish encrustation), nicely toned and evidently quite rare. From the "Power Plant wreck" (late 1500s). "Power Plant wreck" (late 1500s) off Hutchinson Island, Florida

Estimate: $2500-3750