Accession Number

1986.003.0246

Creation Date

1618

Description

Partial date: 16*8.

Exhibition Label

Case Caption (2023):

Chest Of Coins

The Nuestra Señora de Atocha carried nearly 100 wooden chests, each filled with over 2,000 coins and weighing about 70 pounds. Collectively, the chests weighed over three and a half tons. The coins were packed in burlap-type bags before being crated. The ship’s manifest lists 97 separate shipping entries for coins. The single largest private shipment was for over 21,000 coins. The smallest shipment totaled only four.

This chest is one of the very few that survived the 400 years that the galleon spent under water. Despite popular lore, coin chests were simple shipping crates, made of rosewood and nailed shut.
Object Caption (2023):

Coins
Silver (c.1620) 
Gifts of George & Martha Breed, Dr. Edwin Davis, Mel & Dolores Fisher, Ronald E. Holt, Jamestown Inc., Albert B. Manola, Kevin & Renee March, W.W.  Massey Jr.,Thomas F. Messinger, Andy Scott, J. Auber Smith, T.S.I. Liquidation Trust

1986.003.0104, 1986.003.0140-143, 1986.003.0148, 1986.003.0150, 1986.003.0153, 1986.003.0157, 1986.003.0159, 1986.003.0166, 1986.003.0168, 1986.003.0186, 1986.003.0193, 1986.003.0196, 1986.003.0198, 1986.003.0200, 1986.003.0211, 1986.003.0286, 1986.003.0351, 1986.003.0356, 1986.003.0370,  1986.003.0388,  1986.008.0176, 1987.006.0003, 1987.006.0012, 1987.006.0025, 1987.006.0049, 1987.006.0059,  1987.006.0076, 1997.001.0012, 1997.013.0017 1997.013.0020, 1997.014.0001, 1997.014.0009, 1997.017.0013, 1997.017.0069, 1998.003.0003, 1998.004.0009, 1998.004.0024, 1998.005.0006, 1986.003.0202-0204, , 1986.003.0206-0207, 1986.003.0209-0210,  1986.003.0212, 1986.003.0214, 1986.003.0217-0221, 1986.003.0223-0225, 1986.003.0228-0231, 1986.003.0233, 1986.003.0237, 1986.003.0239, 2001.012.0041, 1986.003.0243, 1986.003.0246, 1986.003.0248-0252, 1986.003.0259, 1986.003.0273, 1986.003.0275, 1986.003.0277, 1986.003.0278, 1986.003.0280, 2001.012.0044, 2001.012.0076, 2001.012.0077-78, 2001.012.0082,2001.012.0090, 2001.012.0093, 2001.012.0096, 2001.012.0100, 2006.001.0007