Posted on 03/25/2011 8:10:34 PM PDT by smokingfrog
KEY WEST, FLA.—Shipwreck experts are evaluating a centuries-old-101-centimetre gold chain plucked from the sea floor while searching for a 17th-century sunken Spanish galleon off the Florida Keys.
The piece is tentatively valued at about $250,000. It is believed to be from the Nuestra Senora de Atocha, which sank during a 1622 hurricane. It was found Wednesday by divers from Mel Fisher’s Treasures about 55 kilometres west of Key West.
The chain has 55 links, an enameled gold cross and a two-sided engraved religious medallion featuring the Virgin Mary and a chalice.
(Excerpt) Read more at thestar.com ...
Not to mention that the way the law is now, anything found on Federal land over 50 years old is a historic relic. If you threw a Coke bottle out the window of your Dad's car in the middle of the desert back in 1961 and decided to go back now, because of guilt, and pick it up to put it in the trash, you could be arrested for theft of a relic.
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I used to work with a woman who is Mel Fisher’s niece. She had a coin from the Atocha that her uncle had given her. Really interesting stuff.
The drawing would be worth more, wouldn’t it? lol
Oh, so THATS where I dropped it!
bling bump
Sorry - of course it was 17th century.
How so?
It seems to me to be a good use of wire to create heavy unsoldered links. The florets are well done and the cross and medallion are both very well done, especially the delicate inlay
So, if from the Atocha on its way back to Europe, it indicates either that the Spaniards had a significant operation going in the New World to refashion Indian gold into religious artifacts or that a piece of jewelry that made it from the Old World to the New World didn’t make the return journey.
Probably the blacksmith had no idea of the final use of the cotter pins.... was just given a chunk of gold and told get busy.
This is really neat.... not only spendable but can be used to send messages.
-—— the blacksmith-——
The artisan was not a blacksmith, he was a goldsmith.
That's interesting.
***Man, I never find anything like that. Oh wait. We don’t have any oceans in Colorado.****
What? You have never heard of all that Spanish GOLD buried around Pagosa Springs and all those lost mines around Durango?
Are you living in a tent or a cave?
It’s been years since Mel Fisher found the Atocha. I’m surprised they are back on the wreck again and still finding stuff.
Or maybe this is just disinformation and they have a new shipwreck in play. That would be exciting.
Maybe we should be looking into this as a bartering currency. Most of us couldn't do the gold - but silver. Necklaces with equal weighted links, easily detached. Most people would think it's just costume jewelry - hide our ‘bank account’ in plain sight? could even vary the pieces, for different worth - have a whole bartering system.
Maybe we should be looking into this as a bartering currency. Most of us couldn't do the gold - but silver. Necklaces with equal weighted links, easily detached. Most people would think it's just costume jewelry - hide our ‘bank account’ in plain sight? could even vary the pieces, for different worth - have a whole bartering system.
It’s still being used as “coinage” even today. I read about it in the context of the millenial currency collapse in Argentina. Gold chains and bracelets were considered much more convenient to use than, say, “giant” one-ounce gold coins such as Krugerrands.
How do you “change” a Krugerrand worth $1,400 (today) at the corner black market? A few links of gold jewelry are perfect for buying groceries or gas during a bank closure etc.
(To even pull out a one-ounce gold coin at a black market could mark you for a home invasion or other robbery.)
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