Atocha, sunk in 1622 west of Key West, Florida

Arguably the most famous of all Spanish galleons salvaged in our time, the Atocha was the almiranta of the 1622 Fleet, which left Havana several weeks late and soon ran into a hurricane. Eight ships of the 28-ship fleet were lost, wrecked on the reefs between the Dry Tortugas and the Florida Keys or sunk in deeper water (see Santa Margarita and the “Dry Tortugas wreck” below). Five people survived the sinking of the Atocha and were saved by another vessel, but the wreck itself was scattered after another hurricane hit the site exactly one month later, so the Spanish were never able to salvage what was one of the richest galleons ever to sail.

The cargo of the Atocha did not see light again until 1971 when the first coins were found by the now-famous salvager Mel Fisher and his divers, who recovered the bulk of the treasure in 1985 and thereby unleashed the largest supply of silver cobs and ingots the market has ever seen. Well over 100,000 shield-type cobs were found in all denominations above the half real, the great majority of them from Potosí, as were also the approximately 1,000 silver ingots (most the size of bread loaves). A handful of gold cobs (1 and 2 escudos only) were also recovered, mostly from mainland Spanish mints but also a few from Colombia—officially the first gold coins ever struck in the New World. The Atocha was also the source for most (if not all) of the first silver cobs struck in Colombia, as well as a few early coins from Mexico, Lima and Spain, and even Panama. Even more significant were the many gold ingots, jewelry items, emeralds and other artifacts.

Because of Mel Fisher’s huge publicity, and because much of the treasure was distributed to investors at high ratios compared to their investment amounts, the coins from the Atocha have always sold for much more—anywhere from two times to ten times—than their non-salvage counterparts, even in the numismatic market. (The “glamour market” in tourist areas, by contrast, elevates these coins to as much as twenty times their base numismatic value!) Individually numbered certificates with photos of each coin are critical to the retention of an Atocha coin’s higher value. Accompanying barcode-tags with the coins also make it possible to replace lost certificates through a database system at the Fisher operations in Key West. Each certificate (with some exceptions) also specifies the coin’s Grade, from 1 (highest) to 4 (lowest), a highly subjective evaluation of corrosive damage and overall quality. Most Atocha silver coins are also recognizable by their shiny brightness, the result of a controversial cleaning and polishing process catering more to jewelry demand than to serious numismatists.