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During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, one of the safest ways to preserve wealth was to turn gold and silver into jewelry.  Spanish colonial culture delighted in grand displays of people’s wealth through the jewelry they would use to adorn their everyday attire. For passengers making the arduous and dangerous journey across the Atlantic, jewelry provided a convenient means of transporting their wealth as well as a means of avoiding the King’s customs officials and the Royal Fifth.

Colonial era travelers did not make the journey back to Spain without a very good reason. It was a long and perilous trip fraught with many dangers. Most passengers traveling as supercargo would have been traveling with a large amount of their personal wealth for expenses while overseas, while others who were permanently going back to Spain and were transporting their entire personal fortune with them.

Galleons have been known to transport any number of exquisitely wrought pieces of jewelry. Many beautiful examples have been recovered from Spanish wrecks in recent years. Finds have ranged from the simple to wonderfully exquisite pieces set with a variety of precious stones. 

Beautiful examples of colonial-era jewelry has been found on almost every Spanish galleon ever located.  The items produced by these wrecks are among the most valuable items ever recovered from shipwrecks.

View the jewelry photo gallery