The world's richest native silver mine was discovered in Potosi, Bolivia in 1544. A gentleman by the name of Diego Hualca who was chasing a goat up the side of the Potosi Mountain -- known in the native language as "Cerro De Potosi" -- accidentally discovered it. As the story goes, he tried to pull himself up by grabbing hold of a bush, which under his grasp and weight gave way. Entangled in all of that bush's roots were thin strands of silver wires. After Diego (who was unhurt in the short fall) tumbled down the hill with the bush clutched in his hand, the ground was littered with pure shiny silver. The native Indians known as the Quechua, true descendants of the Incas, called the mine "Potojchi," which means "fountain of silver." The Spanish, on the other hand, called the silvery-white familiar material Plata. It was from this mine that the Spanish minted the "pieces of eight."
After minting these coins on site they were shipped back to Spain in the now famous Spanish Galleons to finance the building of the great fleet, "The Spanish Armada." The coins were minted for centuries directly from the mines on large, forge minting machines by the natives. In a short time the currency became world recognized because of its near pure silver content. A very dark mineral, also coming from the mine, continually caused problems for the smelting mills and the mint because of its high concentration of black metallic sludge. For centuries it was discarded into tailing piles only to be identified later as cassiterie, a very high tin ore. It also made the Potosi one of the richest tin mines in the world when the tailings were reprocessed to obtain this additionally abundant mineral. Although following the silvery veins nearly 600 meters in depth took many centuries, in time, as with all mines, the mine became less and less profitable. Today the mine is abandoned with only remnants of tailings, roads, and bridges. But the city itself is intact, almost as it was at the peak of the mine's greatness. Rich Spanish architecture adorns most of the buildings and the mint is now a museum showing examples of the long history of the world's most profitable and richest deposits of native silver ore.
Note: 1) The great Spanish Armada sailed for England to continue the Spanish conquest in the year 1588, but was handily defeated by the leaner and quicker English fleet, effectively ending Spain's total control over the world's seas.
2) As Spanish control over the mines decreased over the many centuries to a more local privatization or regional political control, not all mine laborers that came to Bolivia had reputable backgrounds. Many criminals and swindlers came also to test their luck in these areas of tremendous wealth and riches. Two such infamous outlaws from the United States in the 1880's came to continue to rob trains, stagecoaches, banks, and paywagons in Bolivia. They were Leroy Parker, alias "Butch Cassidy" and Harry Longabaugh, also known as "The Sundance Kid." Their lives came to abrupt end in a gunfight trap by Bolivian police in the town of San Vincent after they had robbed the payroll from the Cocaya Tin Mine.
We invite you to stop in and see such coins from the Spanish Galleon "Atocha" currently in stock at Ralph Miller Jewelers.