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"Tumbaga" gold-wire ingot (thick gauge) bent into hook shape, 36.68 grams, with tax stamp at pointed

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Shipwreck Ingots Start Price:2,800.00 USD Estimated At:3,500.00 - 7,000.00 USD
 Tumbaga  gold-wire ingot (thick gauge) bent into hook shape, 36.68 grams, with tax stamp at pointed
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This item SOLD at 2017 Nov 02 @ 12:36UTC-4 : AST/EDT
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"Tumbaga" gold-wire ingot (thick gauge) bent into hook shape, 36.68 grams, with tax stamp at pointed end, unique and important, from the "Tumbaga wreck" (ca. 1528), encrusted as found. Roughly 2" x 3/4", about 4-1/2" long and 3/16" in diameter. Fascinating piece that at first looks like a piece of jewelry or adornment in thick-gauge wire form but shows one end clearly flattened and stamped with castle inside beaded circle (tax stamp), hence possibly a native artifact turned into a quantifiable unit of value, the gold quite bright and probably of higher fineness than what is normally considered "tumbaga," attractively coated here and there in grayish coral. From the "Tumbaga wreck" (ca. 1528). NOTE: This piece was offered in the Trabucco (Atlantic City, NJ) Auction of January 24, 1993, but was mis-described in that catalog as "recovered from the Maravilla [sic], 1656"; it is not the first time we have seen a "Tumbaga wreck" item mis-attributed to the Maravillas, both wrecks being in the same area and salvaged by the same company (MAREX).