Silver Bar

Accession Number1997.011.0015

VesselNuestra Señora de Atocha (1622)

DescriptionThis silver ingot was being shipped to Spain on the galleon Atocha by Juan Bautista de la Gasca for his own account. His stylized “GA” mark is prominently inscribed into the face of the bar. 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. Another set of smaller Roman numerals read IIUCCCLXXX, showing the silver was 2380 parts pure silver of 2400. This silver ingot bears a larger Roman numeral DCCCXXXIIII (834), meaning it was the 834^th silver bar produced at that Andean mining center in its year. It bears four partial shield-style tax stamps and the “V” registry mark of Atocha silvermaster Jacobo de Vreder. At the time Atocha sailed, Juan Bautista de la Gasca was an attorney and the official scribe for the Peruvian district of Charcas, which included the city of Potosí; he would later become a judge. Bautista de la Gasca shipped 20 silver ingots on Atocha.