Recent find... Could be significant... Or not...

fuzz, the only thing you can find in Idaho is potatoes.
 

Ha.. stroll around Tnet a bit..there is definitely better things for you.. Native American artifacts would be my suggestion.
 

Great find.

Per interent, "Nieva" has various occupancies in the Spanish language being everything from the name of a small town in Spain, a last name, names of places in Peru. That's probably pretty significant in one way or another. It's worthy of a meaningful research effort.

Anyone know if the passenger manifests are available for the 1715 ships?
 

GatorBoy, I have seen it many times with regards to Colonial Spanish artifacts and documents where they will actually join letters of a name together... Don't know why... Perhaps to make the word stand out as a place name as opposed to a persons name or vice versa... Not sure, but my artifact looks like the N, I, and E are joined as one... Perhaps it's just a space saver since their wasn't a lot of room on the back of this medallion (unless of course they would have engraved it smaller... Which makes me think my first hypothesis was more likely). Either way, it is NIEVA...

LM... I hear what you are saying with regards to Spanish names... Whether it be for persons, places, or ship names... They were used over and over again throughout history. I did research the character or personage represented on this piece and it is Nuestra Señora de las Nievas... Our Lady of Nievas (Nieves)... So it represents the person (or patron religious figure) from Nievas.
 

It is 2.5 cm tall x 2 cm wide and weighs 1.4 grams (silver)...
 

Read The last paragraph of his last post.

This?
"So it represents the person (or patron religious figure) from Nievas."

Thank you - that's cool, what it represents and all, but I don't understand any of what is pictured to give this representation. How about you - can you make out anything on the front?
 

It Looks to me like an impressionalist representation of a woman possibly royalty wearing a cape or robe holding an object in her left hand with her right hand over her heart or chest.

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Sorry Charlie... But it is not a door knocker. Once again, it is a rare silver medallion that represents the Spanish colonial religious figure, Our Lady of Nievas (Nieves) which also happens to be the name of the shipwreck in that vicinity... But thanks for playing... ??? :dontknow: :laughing7:
 

Mike what a beautiful find! And I’m not just saying that because I have an image of Our Lady of the Snows next to my bed.
Your piece shows Mother Mary holding Baby Jesus in her left arm, and in her right, she holds a scepter. The mantle forms a triangle because it wraps almost her entire figure. The Spanish version of Nuestra Señora Virgen De Las Nieves usually depicts both Mother Mary and Jesus crowned. What someone thought was a door knocker loop happens to be a crescent moon located under the Virgin Mary’s feet.
Interestingly, King Felipe V, who ruled Spain during the 1715 Fleet disaster, loved the Virgen De Las Nieves so much, in 1739, he added another day during the year to honor her. This day of devotion fell in May before the main feast day held August 5th.
Congratulations again. And if you don’t mind, I want to take your artifact picture to the Shrine of Our Lady of Snows soon to show the director.

To view antique medals exactly like this one, go to www.todocoleccion.net/

In the search box, insert these letters: n. s. nieva

Laura J
 

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Wow... Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge Laura... You never cease to amaze! That is excellent information and great confirmation of the fact that this is indeed Iur Lady of the Snows... I would be honored for you to share the images of this medallion and I will take some nicer photos of it and post them when I get a moment. I think it's fantastic that I actually recovered this medallion on the beach just inshore from the wreck of the same name! Very cool...
 

I was sooo hoping you would chime in Laura!
You are an amazing and blessed woman.
 

Here's some nicer photos of this find... Laura (elle), you are welcome to use these if you like... I only partially conserved this piece just enough to see the details... upon looking at the medal under a magnifier, it appears that there may have been more facial features and details at one time but clearly have worn down from sea corrosion. This piece was covered in green oxidation and shells when I recovered it so it cleaned fairly nicely.
 

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I would love to see photos of it before it was cleaned.
It puts it in a more authentic perspective that way.
Did you take before photos?
 

I usually do but didn't take any "before" photos this time because I thought this wasn't going to be much of anything due to its small size... also figured it might be modern before I cleaned it because the conditions werent the best for finding anything from the Fleet... live and learn... one can still see some of the green patina I left on the back side and there is still encrustation in the nooks and crannies... it is authentic and it shows its age and character just as well as it is...
 

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