Watch List notes:

Very large silver bar made in Oruro, 92 troy lb, 91% fine, marked with value 9 15 P 1905 M (pesos and maravedis), date 1652, weight 153 (marcos), manifest number IUDLXXXVI (1586), assayer PRGoS / LENoARG(?), tax stamps and owner/shipper marks, ex-Maravillas (1656), ex-Trabucco. 16-1/4" x 5-1/4" x 3-1/2". This massive ingot is a lesson in cryptography, as it is loaded with mysterious markings and cartouches that defy attribution on their own but amazingly match those on a very similar bar found on the "Jupiter Wreck" (1659) and illustrated and described on pages 116-119 of Spanish Treasure Bars (Craig and Richards, 2003). These markings include a date cartouche with ANO above 1652, an unidentified PLoS cartouche, and a two-line assayer cartouche containing several monogrammed letters. In addition, this bar bears an owner/shipper mark of star-topped AS monogram (name unknown) that matches bars from the Capitana (1654) and an unidentified wreck salvaged off Gorda Cay by Art McKee in 1949 that must have been a salvage vessel carrying bars recovered from the Maravillas. The attribution to Oruro is based on a large cylindrical bite (large) in one side, next to a marking of weight given in marcos (153), which when combined with the pesos and maravedis value of 9 15 P 1905 M (with double-line ornament before the 9 and triple-line ornament before the 15) should equate to a fineness of 2188 / 2400 (not marked on bars of this transitional period), as XRF testing shows 91.15% silver. There are also at least three large, circular tax stamps (just like what we see on 1622-Fleet ingots) in addition to at least two, smaller, circular crown-alone stamps like those hammered onto Potosi coins of 1649-52. With minimal surface corrosion, elegant toning, and neat orange encrustation in crevices, this is a premium bar all around, one of very few recovered from this wreck. From the Maravillas (1656), with original MAREX photo-certificate hand-signed by Herbert Humphreys, Jr, also pedigreed to the Trabucco (Atlantic City) auction of January 1993.
($40000-80000)