Watch List notes:

Complete Colombian gold bar, 336.3 grams, marked with fineness XIX-dot (19-1/4K), foundry/assayer RIBERA / ZARAGOZA, and partial circular tax stamps, NGC Genuine / Maravillas, ex-Christie's (1992), ex-Elsen (2008). About 6-3/4" x 1" x 1/4", the slab itself 10-1/2" x 8-1/4" x 1-1/4" and 1532 grams total. The ultimate shipwreck bar: An extremely well-marked complete gold ingot from a highly desirable and well-known shipwreck, fittingly honored to be the first and only such item to be certified and encapsulated by NGC in what they call a "mega holder" #6706234-001. The top of the bar shows three clear fineness markings consisting of XIX inside a box next to a dot (the symbol for a quarter karat) inside a separate box, the fineness also lightly incised into the surface prior to stamping (an aspect we have seen on other gold bars); parts of four circular tax stamps showing different parts of a typical Philip IV legend (as on the coins); and--best of all--a complete foundry/assayer cartouche with RIBERA / ZARAGOZA inside one box, clearly referring to the Zaragoza municipality and gold-producing region in Colombia; with small piece broken off one end where the assay was done in the 1650s. All of the markings show at least some white-coral encrustation, as do parts of the back of the bar, which also shows curious raised lines that match up with the positions of the stamps on front (similar to what is seen on later countermarked coins). Among the many shipwreck gold bars we have sold over the years, this is the only one we have auctioned from the Maravillas (only 15 of which were originally sold by Christie's in 1992). From the Maravillas (1656), with Sedwick photo-certificate #000101, pedigreed to the original Christie's (London) Maravillas auction of May 1992 (lot 139), a copy of the catalog for which also accompanies this lot, also pedigreed to the Jean Elsen (Belgium) auction 97 of September 2008 (lot 1129).


Estimate: 40000 - 80000 USD