Neatly formed silver ingot, 19?? grams, with stamp of 'A' for the Amsterdam chamber of the VOC (Dutch East India Co.) and "jumping goat" assay-mark of Otto and/or Wouter Buck, ex-Rooswijk. 6" x 1-1/2" x 1-1/4".

together with two other ingots from the same wreck, one in a similar condition, the other with tumbled erosion.

The Rooswijk was built for the Dutch East India Company in 1737. On 9th January 1739 it sank 8km off the coast of Kent with no known survivors. The wreck was discovered by an amateur diver in 2004, and a salvage operation began the following year during which silver ingots and gold coins were among the items discovered.

Dutch VOC ingots were made by assayers in private factories from melted coins, mainly Spanish American "reales de a ocho" or "pieces of eight" and are extremely rare as on arrival in the East they were traded for the spices and fabrics popular in Europe.

The bars were then melted down to make local currency and the silver jewellery which was popular in the Dutch colony of Batavia, now Indonesia. And so it is only from the wreck of the Rooswijk and two other ships (Slot ter Hog and the Bredehof) that these bullion bars are recovered.

The ingot shows the 'A' for Amsterdam, 'VOC' is the sign of the Dutch East India Company and the ingot was probably cast by the assayers Grill who used the sign of the goat.