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| 336 Gram Gold Bar From Maravillas Way Over Auction Estimate Already. Source: Lot 60 in Current Sedwick Auction. |
The auction estimate on this bar was $40,000 to $80,000, but it already has a bid of $120,000. How high will it go?
Complete Colombian gold bar, 336.3 grams, marked with fineness XIX-dot (19-1/4K), foundry/assayer RIBERA / ZARAGOZA, and partial circular tax stamps, NGC Genuine / Maravillas, ex-Christie's (1992), ex-Elsen (2008). About 6-3/4" x 1" x 1/4", the slab itself 10-1/2" x 8-1/4" x 1-1/4" and 1532 grams total. The ultimate shipwreck bar: An extremely well-marked complete gold ingot from a highly desirable and well-known shipwreck, fittingly honored to be the first and only such item to be certified and encapsulated by NGC in what they call a "mega holder" #6706234-001. The top of the bar shows three clear fineness markings consisting of XIX inside a box next to a dot (the symbol for a quarter karat) inside a separate box, the fineness also lightly incised into the surface prior to stamping (an aspect we have seen on other gold bars); parts of four circular tax stamps showing different parts of a typical Philip IV legend (as on the coins); and--best of all--a complete foundry/assayer cartouche with RIBERA / ZARAGOZA inside one box, clearly referring to the Zaragoza municipality and gold-producing region in Colombia; with small piece broken off one end where the assay was done in the 1650s. All of the markings show at least some white-coral encrustation, as do parts of the back of the bar, which also shows curious raised lines that match up with the positions of the stamps on front (similar to what is seen on later countermarked coins). Among the many shipwreck gold bars we have sold over the years, this is the only one we have auctioned from the Maravillas (only 15 of which were originally sold by Christie's in 1992). From the Maravillas (1656), with Sedwick photo-certificate #000101, pedigreed to the original Christie's (London) Maravillas auction of May 1992 (lot 139), a copy of the catalog for which also accompanies this lot, also pedigreed to the Jean Elsen (Belgium) auction 97 of September 2008 (lot 1129).
There is a another gold bar of about the same size from another shipwreck in the auction that is going for less than 20% of the current bid on this one.
There are several things that make this one especially interesting. It is a the first item to be NGC certified in what they call a "mega holder." You might want to read the lot description to see if you can tell what else makes it so desirable.
Here is a link for more about the Maravillas.
Maravillas | Bahamas Maritime Museum
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Just over a hundred years ago, the archaeologist Haakon Shetelig was incredibly disappointed when he did not find a Viking ship during an excavation of the Salhushaugen gravemound in Karmøy in Western Norway.
Shetelig had previously excavated a rich Viking ship grave just nearby, where Grønhaugskipet was found, as well as excavated the famous Oseberg ship – the world’s largest and most well-preserved surviving Viking ship – in 1904. At Salshaugen he only found 15 wooden spades and some arrowheads.
“He was incredibly disappointed, and nothing more was done with this mound,” says Håkon Reiersen, an archaeologist at the Museum of Archaeology at the University of Stavanger.
It turns out, however, that Shetelig simply did not dig deep enough.
New discovery of a Viking ship in Norway (sciencenorway.no)
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People think that when they retire they'll have lots of leisure time. It hasn't turned out that way for me. There are things I need to do daily. And then there are the occasional things that pop up more than I'd like. I'm not whining, I'm trying to say something here - you just can't tell how things are going to turn out, and you won't necessarily have all the free time in the future that you plan to have. You don't even know how many years you'll be around, or what your health will be like. You will have to make choices depending upon your priorities. You can't do everything and you might have to make some tough choices. Still, I'm lucky. I'm just saying that you never know what the future will bring, and if you have the opportunity to do things today, don't put it off. One of the reasons I do this blog, is that I'm not in the field very much anymore, but I can do this in the middle of the night or whenever, and I enjoy thinking it through and it compensate a little for the fact that I'm not out there detecting very much anymore. You have to decide what is important in life. Make hay while the sun shines, and be grateful for what you have.
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The tides remain flat. I'd sure like to see a good low tide. I'm itching to get a quick bottle hunt in.
Good hunting,
Treasureguide@comcast.net