Watch List notes:

Silver "tumbaga" bar #M-66 ("key bar"), 21.66 lb av, showing un-melted disks on top, marked on bottom with owner/assayer YB13 and fineness iUBC XV (1615/2400, 67.29%), plus two partial tax stamps, ex-"Tumbaga wreck" (ca. 1528), Armstrong plate, Tumbaga Saga plate. 13-5/8" x 5" x 1-3/8". It is hard to imagine a more significant silver ingot than this cool piece, which has crossed our desk several times over the years, each time leaving us with a renewed sense of awe in how so much historical evidence could be explicitly displayed in what amounts to a hasty coverup, as the top surface of this piece shows several small disks and other flat pieces sticking out of a solid ingot that was not heated sufficiently to melt everything, these small artifacts necessarily being ornaments and talismans from natives in Mexico (Michoacan region) during the Spanish conquest. In one corner on the bottom of the bar are three incuse boxes showing the owner/assayer YB13 to left of fineness (two parts), with partial circular tax stamp above that and also at the other end, nicely toned all over. From the "Tumbaga wreck" (ca. 1528), with original photo-certificate, and pedigreed to our Auction #6, with original lot-tag #1630, fully plated in color section of Doug Armstrong's Tumbaga Silver for Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire (1993) and also plated on page 101 of Agustin Garcia-Barneche's Tumbaga Saga (second edition, 2018). Recovered from: "Tumbaga wreck," sunk ca. 1528 off Grand Bahama Island

Estimate: $25000-50000