Unidentified Shipwreck (1554) Large silver "splash" ingot, 2984 grams

Description: 

Large silver "splash" ingot, 2984 grams, marked with circular tax stamp showing pillars and PLVS VLTRA, ex-unidentified ca.-1554 wreck off Santo Domingo.

roughly 9" x 8½". Very thin, broad puddle of refined silver (XRF tested at about 99% fine), naturally poured without a mold, showing a rough bottom but smooth top with nearly full and distinctive tax stamp featuring two pillars and the motto PLVS VLTRA under a crown, the edge somewhat irregular but with approximately 4½" of it tangentially sliced off to make "plata corriente" in its time, with lightly toned silver color all over. Around 2007-8, coins and ingots identical to those from the 1554 Fleet off Padre Island, Texas, entered the market from a shipwreck off Santo Domingo that had to have been carrying material from the same 1554 Fleet, either on a ship that survived the initial storm or salvaged in its time and lost again. The markings on the ingots are a match with those found off Padre Island, and in fact they are quite different from those seen on ingots from the so-called "Golden Fleece" wreck of ca. 1550 that had been on the market since the late 1990s (a confusion when this ingot was first sold publicly in 2009 from a large shipwreck collection).

From an unidentified wreck of the Spanish 1554 Fleet sunk off Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

Code: 122504191002