Our featured treasure for May is a gold bar found a number of years ago at the Corrigan’s Beach wreckA 1715 Fleet wreck site located 5 miles north of the Vero Beach city limits. The site is referred to as the “Corrigan’s Beach Wreck” because the beach was once owned by Hugh Corrigan. It has bee... site. Just over three inches in length, this little ingot weighs in at 462 grams (or 1.018 pounds). There is an interesting circular “feathered crown” tax stamp (see detail) shown on the bar. Close inspection reveals that when this tax stamp was impressed into the gold, three compression fractures resulted.
Compare this gold bar to our featured Treasure of the Month for August 2016. There we featured a gold pectoral bar from the 1715 Rio Mar wreckLocated in Vero Beach opposite the Rio Mar Golf Course. The capitana of the Terra Firma Fleet it was the largest galleon of the eleven Spanish ships leaving Havana harbor in 1715. Her official name wa... site near Vero Beach, Florida. A close comparison of the two bars shows evidence of a common origin. Our August TOM also features two prominent tax stamps of the “Feathered crown” variety. Compression fractures are evident where the tax stamps were impressed. This is quite remarkable, given the fact that both bear such a strong resemblance, yet they were found at two different wreck sites almost 20 miles apart.
What an interesting story these two items have to tell! Perhaps a detailed study of the tax stamp would provide the answer to the common origin of these gold bars.
