Silver Bar

Accession Number1986.003.0007

VesselNuestra Señora de Atocha (1622)

DescriptionThis silver ingot was being shipped to Spain on Atocha by Juan Delgado on behalf of a J. de la Cueva. Delgado’s mark is the angular slash across one end of the bar, and the “CAE” mark is Cueva’s personal mark, an amalgam of all five letters of his last name. Another mark from an earlier transaction has been hammered and obliterated. A central “scoop” on the face of the ingot is a characteristic of ingots produced at Potosí. The scoop was made by the assayer when he sampled the silver to determine the ingot’s purity. The Roman numerals VUCLXIIII indicate it was the 5164^th ingot produced at that Andean silver mining center in (likely) 1621. A smaller set of Roman numerals reads IIUCCCLXXX, or 2380, indicating the silver was found to be 2380 parts of pure silver out of 2400. A shield style tax stamp shows the 20% tax had been paid on the value of the silver. A “V” stamp denotes that it was registered on Atocha by silvermaster Jacobo de Vreder. Juan Delgado shipped 181 silver ingots on Atocha and another 15 on Santa Margarita.