Opps. Don't know how I missed this great thread you started, Jim! I remember when this whole thing went down and so badly. Too bad, as I've read Barry's books on Expedition Whydah and his other dives on pirate ships (French privateers in the Caribbean). I don't think he personally tried to dupe anyone (it would have come out very quickly that the bar was NOT silver!). I think he just got caught up in the excitement of it all and got sloppy.
As far as why this lead ingot would have been so marked remains a mystery. As others have pointed out, lead was still a useful and semi-valuable commodity in the New World (lead was used to seal aqueducts and line the gutters of cathedrals in New Spain and Europe alike), but there is no reason it should bear the markings used on precious metals UNLESS it was made to deceive. Remember that when the Treasure Fleets were coming back from Mexico, there were many sailors that were trying to smuggle treasure back home or to steal some of the payload for themselves. That was the reason the Fleets had teams of soldiers aboard, not just to protect the ships from pirates, but from the crew!! There have been accounts (I bring this one up frequently as it is fascinating to me!!) of sailors bringing back a solid gold anchor painted black to try and get it past the bean-counters in Madrid!
Perhaps a silver bar got misappropriated and a lead one set in its place by some greedy sailors. The ruse would only have to work long enough for them to get back home. Or maybe the lead bar was handed over to marauding pirates to keep them pacified so they didn't put the crew of the captured vessel to the sword. Later on, realizing the trickery, someone angrily pitched it over the side. Who knows. In any case, I agree with most of the folks here that any item of such age and maritime history has a story to tell, a mystery to be solved and a value to collectors. Too bad we don't hear about this ingot after the debacle.
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