Just A Coin or Two

By: Jim Sinclair

The Problem

Conservator Jim Sinclair chemically treats a clump of more than 1,500 silver coins

The location of the PCD of the Atocha was the culmination of the 16 year quest of Mel Fisher and his company Treasure Salvors, Inc. I met Mel Fisher and heard about the Atocha in 1978 on a field school from my college in New Hampshire. At the conclusion of Mel’s presentation to our group of students he offered a blanket invitation – probably only to be friendly – inviting us to come down and "help him find the treasure" when we get out of school. I took him seriously, and so in 1980 I arrived in Key West and sat on Mel’s office door step until he returned. I proceeded to convince him to give me a job. So, at 80 dollars per week I began to apprentice with the head archaeologist, Dr. R. Duncan Mathewson, III and the chief conservator Dr. Richard J. Murphy. My immediate job was to inventory finds mostly from the Santa Margarita – the recently found sister ship of the Atocha , lost in the same hurricane of 1622.

As I worked in the lab/storage facility I began to learn the techniques of conservation from Dr. Murphy and continued to do so for the next three years. During this time I also developed a relationship with other conservators around the country. Although Treasure Salvors , Inc. and the state of Florida were adversarial in court at the time, I found the folks who ran the conservation laboratories in Tallahassee, and Mr. Herb Bump and Mr. James Levie very willing to share information. I found this to be true with most conservators that I have had the honor to be associated with. The historic shipwreck salvors, academic and institutional archeologists might fight and disagree, but once the artifacts are recovered, no matter what the method or source, they have to be cared for. This is perhaps the reason there was and is a continuing good relationship between conservationists the world over.

Taking over the Lab

In 1983 Dr. Murphy left Treasure Salvors, Inc. and I inherited the labs as Head Conservator. In this position I got to work on the fascinating finds being made on the Santa Margarita 1622, the Neustra Senora de Atocha 1622 and the Henrietta Marie 1700. In 1982 a subsidy of Treasure Salvors Inc. became the general contractor on the 1715 fleet and the labs in Key West began to administrate the recoveries from those six Spanish galleons as well. The variety and number of artifacts from all these historic shipwrecks helped to hone my skills as a conservator and archaeologist. But nothing could quite prepare me for the main pile of the Nuestra Senora de Atocha.

The Motherlode

On July 20^th, 1985 a call came in from Kane Fisher, Mel’s youngest son, who said "put away the charts – we found the motherlode!" This started a veritable torrent of artifacts into the labs in Key West, the most numerous of which were the silver coins.

The manifest of the Atocha listed the treasure, who it belonged to and the tax that was paid, so we had a good idea what would be found. Mel had told us it would be a mass of silver three feet high, ten feet across and thirty feet long. Although we knew what to expect, nothing could quite prepare us for this reality.

I stood on the docks two days after the discovery and watched the salvage vessel "Dauntless" pull into port. A tropical storm had sent the boats back into Key West. The first of the treasure was unloaded onto the docks. As the silver bars and silver coins were unloaded the excitement became overwhelming, and for me a deep sense of connection and reverence to the past emerged. I felt I knew how Howard Carter must have felt when he first peered into King Tut’s tomb. Suddenly, tangibly, the past was in front of us and we were humbled by it. Here, at last, was "the stuff that dreams are made of" being piled high right in front of our very eyes.

The artifacts then moved from the dock to the laboratory and museum complex, and the conservation process that would be repeated so very many times began.

A Five Minute Job

This was one of Mel’s standard jokes and we who worked for him knew that when Mel said "I’ve got a five minute job for you" we were in for a large amount of work. One of the jobs lasted me three months. So as the materials began to accumulate in the lab, I wasn’t surprised to hear Mel say "Gee Jim, it looks like you’ve got a five minute job." Needless to say, I loved it – this was what we had been working so hard towards for so many years. All the knowledge I had gathered over the years, I now got to put to work.

Electrolytic Reduction

But all these coins! Thousands of them! In chests, buckets and bags. The standard method for cleaning metals from shipwreck sites is electrolytic reduction. Using this method a coin is literally made a part of an electric cell. Almost the reverse of electroplating, this method sets up a cell with positive and negative ends in a tank containing an electrolyte. The coin becomes the negative or cathode of the cell and on the other positive side is a sacrificial anode, usually stainless steel for durability. The electrolyte is a solution of usually water, and a chemical base which helps with the flow of current. Once the cell is set up, regulated DC current is applied which causes a movement of ions within the cell. The stainless steel being positively charged draws ions toward it from the cathode (the coin). This starts a process of the removal of contaminants such as chlorides (salts) out of the object.

Once the tank is hooked up and the current is applied small bubbles begin to appear on the cathode. This is hydrogen coming to the surface and is called "reduction." The steel plate will also show wear because it is doing the opposite of reduction – "oxidation". Eventually this plate will rust. Over time the contaminants are removed and the sulfides on the surface are softened into a manageable (able to be cleaned) material. The coins are then polished and the conservation phase is finished.

Up to that time the most coins I had cleaned numbered in the hundreds. Now I was faced with well over a hundred thousand. Needless to say, a large and efficient system had to be established. Two tanks were constructed that could handle 300 coins at a time and lapidary tumblers with a special cleaning medium were used for the final polishing phase. The coins were then sorted into specially designed boxes which had break downs of mint denomination and assayer for the more common coins, the unusual ones were set aside. The coins were bagged with their designations and provenance data, i.e what chest they came from, and then passed into the computer room where their information was entered. As the final step, the coins were inserted into acid-free flipettes with their identifying information. This process was repeated thousands of times creating a database of information which is saved for future generations. Study groups were set aside of each assayer and die type for the Mel Fisher Maritime Heritage Society – a nonprofit organization with its attendant museum.

Over a three- year period something near 175,000 silver coins were handled in the lab. The lab still functions today, although now it occupies two levels of the building. One level is run by the MFMHS on their nonprofit projects such as the Henrietta Marie 1700, and the early Spanish wreck in the Bahamas. Mel Fisher’s Motivation, Inc., the corporate descendant of Treasure Salvors, Inc. runs the other floor of the lab, conducting for-profit ventures including the search for the remaining treasures of the Atocha.

I am proud to have been a part of this adventure, working with such talented people, helping to develop the laboratories, and I am honored to have worked on these important historical materials.

James J. Sinclair
Consulting Archaeologist /Conservator
SEAREX Inc.
9881 East Bay Harbor Dr.
Bay Harbor Islands, FL 33154
305-867-4184
e-mail- jimsinclair@worldnet.att.net