Hostname: page-component-669899f699-rg895 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-04T20:55:08.622Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Metal Contents of Silver and Gold Ingots and Coins from 16TH-18TH Century Spanish Shipwrecks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 February 2011

Adon A. Gordus  and
Alan K. Craig
Adon A. Gordus
Affiliation:
The University of Michigan, Dept. of Chemistry, Ann Arbor, MI, 48109
Alan K. Craig
Affiliation:
Florida Atlantic University, Dept. of Geography, Boca Raton, FL, 33431
Get access

Abstract

Neutron activation analysis of metal-rubbing samples from over 500 silver and gold bars and coins resulted in data for the silver, copper, and gold contents of the objects. The analysis of gold coins (from a 1715 shipwreck) minted in Bogota also showed detectable levels of the metal iridium (>0.002%) whereas gold coins from other mints did not. The presence of detectable iridium, therefore, might serve as a diagnostic indicator of early 18th century gold of Colombian origin. Data are also given for silver and gold ingots from a (ca. 1520s) shipwreck off the coast of the Bahamas and for silver bars from the 1622 Atocha shipwreck.

Type
Research Article
Information
MRS Online Proceedings Library (OPL) , Volume 352: Symposium – Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology IV , 1995 , 605
Copyright
Copyright © Materials Research Society 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

REFERENCES

1. Gordus, A. A. and Shimada, I., Material Issues in Art and Archaeology IV, edited by Galvan, J. L., Druzik, J., and Vandiver, P. B. (Mater. Res. Soc. Proc., this volume, Pittsburgh, PA, 1994).Google Scholar
2. Gordus, A. A. and Gordus, J. P. in Proc. of 1988 Coinage of the Americas Conference: The Coinage of the Viceroyalty of Peru and Its Successor States, edited by Bischoff, W. L. (Am. Numismatic Soc., New York, 1989), pp. 22–42.Google Scholar
3. Gordus, A. A. and Gordus, J. P. in Archaeological Chemistry: Advances in Chemistry Series No. 138, edited by Gould, R. F. (Am. Chem. Soc., Washington, DC, 1974), pp. 124–147.Google Scholar
4. Craig, A. K., Gold Coins of the 1715 Spanish Plate Fleet: A Numismatic Study of the State of Florida Collection (Florida Archaeology No. 4, Florida Bureau of Archaeological Res., Tallahassee, FL, 1988), 83 p.Google Scholar
5. Kossolapov, A. J., private communication.Google Scholar
6. , Christie's (London) auction catalog, Apr. 28, 1993.Google Scholar
7. Armstrong, D. R., Tumbaga Silver: For Emperor Charles V of the Holy Roman Empire, (Private publication by the author, Palm Bay, FL, 1993), 35 p + appendices.Google Scholar
8. Matthewson, R. D. III, Treasure of the the Atocha, (Sidgwick & Jackson, London, 1986), 160 p.Google Scholar