Silver Bar
Physical Object
1987.011.0001
Nuestra Señora de Atocha (1622)
This large silver ingot was being shipped to Spain by Pedro Quintero on his own account. A sideways “P” with a diamond above it is his personal mark. The gouged end of the ingot is a characteristic of silver bars produced at the Andean mining city of Oruro. The gouge-mark was made by the assayer when he sampled the silver to determine the ingot’s purity. A small set of Roman numerals reads IIUCCCLXXX, or 2380, indicating the silver was found to be 2380 parts of pure silver out of 2400. The larger Roman numerals CCXCIIII (294) indicate that the ingot was the 294th produced at that Andean mining center in its unidentified year of production. A “V” in the corner of the face is the mark of Atocha silvermaster Jacobo de Vreder and an indicator that he registered the bar aboard the galleon. A large “B” on the face has been hammered and slightly obliterated, a reminder of an earlier transaction of the bar. This is one of seventeen silver ingots shipped by Pedro Quintero on Atocha.