Details: This Atocha Silver Crucifix is made entirely of silver from the Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de Atocha, shipwrecked in 1622 off the coast of Key West, Florida.  According to the ship's manifest, 35 tons of silver, 255,000 silver coins, 161 gold coins, and 901 silver bars (known as ingots) were recorded as ship's cargo.  The rediscovery of her treasure three and a half decades later continues to this day, to be one of the most valuable ever found.  Operations on the Atocha site began in 1985 with the discovery of "The Motherlode;" a seascape of silver ingots averaging 60 pounds each strewn on the seafloor as far as the eye could see.  Out of those 901, silver ingot number 393 was used in the creation of this Atocha silver crucifix.

Undersea excavations on the Atocha shipwreck site yielded a healthy mix of hand-crafted religious jewelry from the New World, belonging to passengers of both the middle and upper Nobility classes.  Many of these Amerindian artifacts were delicately created using Incan gold or Mexican silver, and were engraved with scenes and depictions from life in early Mesoamerica and South America.  These engravings suggested adaptability of the Catholic Church and how it operated in the New World colonies.

Intended for the Spanish Crown, wealthy investors, and The Vatican itself, religious jewelry discovered on The Atocha herself was named after a parish in Madrid, Spain, suggesting she was the Patron Saint of the vessel itself.