First listing date

ITEM DESCRIPTION

September, 2006

Complete, coral-encrusted "finger" bar #39, 1110 grams, about 10" long, 1" wide, and 5/8" tall, stamped clearly five time with fineness XVII (17K), with significant areas of appended coral (especially on the flat, unmarked side), the rest of the bar a brilliant gold color, varying from light yellow to orange, both ends rounded as made, a very impressive artifact!

September, 2006

Long, coral-encrusted, cut "finger" bar #50, 689 grams, about 8" long, 1" wide, and 5/8" tall, a very crudely made bar with lots of white coral on top of dark-orange encrustation, in fact covering one or two fineness markings, but one clear (171⁄2K), with several large bubble-voids in the metal and some small ones too (very curious), one end broken off with lots of coral covering the break, the other end mostly rounded but not fully formed.

September, 2006

Long, coral-encrusted, cut "finger" bar #42, 516 grams, about 61⁄2" long, 1" wide, and 1⁄2" tall, with so much coral encrustation that one whole marking of fineness is completely covered and two others are partially so (either 191⁄2K or 193⁄4K), jaggedly cut at one end (other end rounded), some reddish staining.

January, 2006

Half-cut contraband disk, 749.5 grams, estimated fineness 20K, a heavy (over 2 troy pounds!) hunk of gold with no markings but of high-grade color, an exact semi-circle cut of a 13⁄4"-radius disk, 3⁄4" thick in center, lightly scored on the rounded side and broken from there (lots of coral and ocean sediment inside the crevices of the break), with a stress crack on the flat top, the bottom smooth, a very typical contraband ingot with high intrinsic value (about $12,850 with gold at $640/oz.).

January, 2006

Rectangular corner-cut of a marked bar, 230 grams, estimated fineness 17K, roughly 13⁄4" x 1" x 5/8", with two sides broken from a larger bar and the other two sides smooth and sloped (outside edges of the original bar), the breaks filled with ocean sediment and coral, and the wide top of the bar showing an indecipherable marking with dots and boxes (possibly a fineness marking, but not if it's contraband, which it may be), the fineness estimated by color.

July, 2006

Large, oval "splash" #30, 3771 grams, about 11" x 8" and 1" at its thickest, fascinating shape, mostly very thin, with volcano-like bulge in middle (thickest part) and two slightly upturned edges that make it look like a "flying" manta ray(!), typically silvery with crystalline texture (from over-cleaning) except for raised spots, which have dark, wormy encrustation, many tiny bubble holes in bottom, 3 partial tax-stamps, largest ingot from this wreck so far.

July, 2006

Large, round "splash" #26, 3799 grams, about 8" in diameter and 1" at its thickest, top surface dark with some light-gray encrustation but bottom typically silvery and over-cleaned, no visible markings (several tax stamps on top probably corroded away), but nice display anyway, and the heaviest ingot from this wreck so far.

July, 2006

Coral-encrusted half-cut "splash" #25, 1117 grams, about 31⁄2" radius with the straight cut right through the middle, about 1⁄2" thick, but cocooned in encrustation (hence any possible markings not visible), the encrustation an attractive mix of gray and white with spots of pink, scarce as one of the few still-uncleaned ingots from this wreck.