1986.008.1496
Silver Bar
Physical Object
1986.008.1496
Santa Margarita (1622)
This ingot corroded during its time under the sea, and many of its surface markings were destroyed. The “Rx” personal mark of Gaspar de Rojas is still legible, though. Rojas shipped 100 silver ingots on Santa Margarita and another 11 on Atocha. The central “scoop” on the face of the ingot is a characteristic of ingots produced at the Andean mining center of Potosí, in today’s Bolivia. The scoop was made by the assayer when he sampled the silver to determine the ingot’s purity.