77

Small Spanish colonial silver "plata corriente" cut piece with partial tax stamp (late 1500s to earl

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Coins: Shipwreck Ingots Start Price:240.00 USD Estimated At:300.00 - 600.00 USD
Small Spanish colonial silver  plata corriente  cut piece with partial tax stamp (late 1500s to earl
CURRENT BID
0.00USD
ENTER YOUR MAXIMUM ABSENTEE BID[?]
You must bid at least
240.00USD
USD
240.00 x 1 unit = 240.00USDApplicable fees & taxes are added at checkout.
[?]Live Online Auction Starts In 2026 Nov 05 @ 09:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
By registering for our auction, you agree to the terms and conditions.
Small Spanish colonial silver "plata corriente" cut piece with partial tax stamp (late 1500s to early 1600s), 0.35 oz troy (11.04 grams), found in New Mexico ca. 1985. Roughly 1" x ½" x ¼". Very dark in color, with a sheen of brown oxidation tinged with white, broken in three places off the edge of a small "splash" ingot, with one side showing the interior castles-and-lions design of the center of a circular tax stamp that is associated with ingots from the period of Philip II to IV (also with parts of legend visible, including a piece of PHILIPPVS), XRF tested at anywhere from 48% to 81% silver with as much as 20% lead and 24% iron, also some copper and iridium and even a trace of manganese. Despite the chaotic composition, this is otherwise a typical "plata corriente" piece (used for money before coins were available in quantity in the colonies), perhaps circulated as a 2 reales in its time, and was among several found at the site of the Santiago Pueblo in the Rio Grande River valley near Bernalillo, New Mexico, by amateur archeologist Dee D. Brecheisen in the mid-1980s (according to the accompanying letter). Santiago Pueblo was an indigenous community visited by Francisco Vásquez de Coronado in 1541, destroyed in the process but resettled later that century. Coronado was searching for the fabled Seven Cities of Gold, but instead encountered a dozen villages, or pueblos, like this one, peopled by Tiwa-speaking natives, which became known generally as Pueblo Indians. With letter and provenance statement from the finder's son.