Monetary Gold Ingot
1816 Villa Riga

Triton XIX, Lot: 2266. Estimate $30000. Sold for $37500. This amount does not include the buyer’s fee.

BRAZIL, Regional Coinage. Villa Riga. AV Ingot (58x14mm, 27.24 g). Dated 1816. Crowned coat-of-arms within wreath to left; to right, N 776 (bar registration number) and 1816 (date) in ogee incuse frame above TOQUE (fineness) and 23 (carat), each in square incuse, two stars in incuse, -7-42 (weight: 7 oitavas, 56 grãos), and script AD (assayer’s stamp) in incuse / Armillary sphere; all stamped on oblong ingot. KM p. 148; Friedberg 107. With NGC Photocertificate graded EF.

From the collection of Dr. Lawrence A. Adams. Ex Louis E. Eliasberg Collection (American Numismatic Rarities, 18 April 2005), lot 3334.

Despite the numerous mints established to handle the flow of raw metals from the New World, vast quantities were still shipped to Europe in a raw or uncoined state. In late 18th and early 19th century Brazil, these shipments took the form of short, bar-shaped ingots, stamped with the producing furnace, the fineness, the assayer, and other information. These bars were accompanied by a guia, a short, one-page document detailing the information on the bar, as well as recording the various taxes paid. These certificates were usually lost, and the ingots themselves frequently melted down to be used in other forms. For a fascinating example of an ingot accompanied by its original guia, see Sedwick 10, lot 118.