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Gold Discs, Bars, and Bits
Tejos, Barras, Pedazos de Barras
By Carol Tedesco
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“Gold is most excellent,” 15th century explorer Christopher Columbus penned in his sea journal, “of gold there is formed treasure…” Columbus also compared the taste of iguana to chicken. In some ways, life has not changed much in the five centuries that separate his quests from those of modern adventurers. It is still common to compare the taste of almost everything to chicken, and gold is still considered “most excellent.”
Following the Spanish conquest of the Americas, the precious metal gold was commonly transported from the New World to the Old in the form of bars, discs and bits—tejos, barras, y pedazos de barras.
With a value ratio of 16 to 1 between gold and silver, an individual in possession of gold was a very wealthy individual indeed, and while entrepreneurial free-enterprise was a heady reality for Spaniards in the Americas, the Spanish crown claimed a slice from its subjects wealth for itself. This slice came in the form of the “royal fifth” or “quinto,” a 20% tax on all bullion—the Kingdom of Spain’s foremost source of profit from its New World colonies.
Most gold bullion bars, discs, and bits found by shipwreck explorers display markings that impart information about the individual piece: The small nick of missing gold at the rounded tip of the upper partial bar in the photo is the “assayers bite.” The assayer, whose job was to attest to the purity of the metal, scooped out the hollow, or “bite” from the bar and tested it. Then, the degree of purity—the karat rating—was stamped onto the bar in Roman numerals. Small dots following the purity rating each represent an additional 1/4 karat. The assayer kept the “bite” as a payment for doing the work. Some gold bars have been discovered with the karat markings scratched into them, rather than stamped. The circular stamps are tax stamps. These indicate that the quinto was paid on the bullion. Some bars have been discovered without tax stamps, indicating that they were either property of the Catholic church and exempt from taxation, or smuggled contraband. Since money was valued and spent by purity and weight, it was not uncommon to cut bars (and coins) into pieces.
While silver in the ocean quickly becomes blackened and encrusted—and nearly unrecognizable to an untrained eye—gold is a “noble metal,” not subject to corrosion and encrustation, and is instantly recognizable, its enigmatic beauty undiminished.
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