The Golden Chain of the Lost Galleon

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

In 1622, trade was flourishing between Spain and the Spanish West Indies, but the waters of the Florida Keys are too dangerous for navigation. On 6 September, the galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha sank, precipitated by a hurricane on a coral reef near Key West. It was carrying copper, silver, tobacco, jewelry, indigo and several tons of gold and silver.

The same year (or about it), another galleon, Santa Margarita, knows the same fate.

Mel Fisher, the treasure hunter who discovered in 1985 the sinking location of the Nuestra Señora de Atocha, opened a museum in his name in the Florida Keys.

After being loaned to the museum, a money chain taken from the Santa Margarita is estimated at $ 75 K in the sale of Heritage at Long Beach on May 29. It is a chain of 407 removable links of pure gold, forming a line of more than three meters and weighing nearly 1800 grams.

The purpose of this easy to divide object was certainly to make trade with tribes that did not know the currency. No other copy is larger than this one. That makes sense: only a catastrophic event, like a wreck, could maintain such a piece designed to be dismantled.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

This lot was particularly interesting for the studies on this network because the only asset to overcome its low estimate was cultural: how we imagine its use.

I am very happy with the result: K $ 115 including premium.