Showing all 2 results

The cargo of the Atocha did not see light again until 1971 when the first coins were found by the now famous salvager Mel Fisher and his divers, who recovered the bulk of the treasure in 1985 and thereby unleashed the largest supply of silver cobs and ingots the market has ever seen. Well over 100,000 shield-type cobs were found in all denominations above the half real, the great majority of them from Potosi, as were also the approximately 1,000 silver ingots (most the size of breads loaves). A handful of gold cobs (1 and 2 escudos only) were also recovered, mostly from mainland Spanish mints but also a few from Colombia—officially the first gold coins ever struck in the New World. The Atocha was also the source for most (if not all) of the first silver cobs struck in Colombia, as well as a few early coins from Mexico, Lima and Spain, and even Panama. Even more significant were the many gold ingots, jewelry items, emeralds and other artifacts.