The Gold-Bug

of the period. There was not a particle of silver. All was gold of antique date and of great variety⁠—French, Spanish, and German money, with a few English guineas, and some counters, of which we had never seen specimens before. There were several very large and heavy coins, so worn that we could make nothing of their inscriptions. There was no American money. The value of the jewels we found more difficulty in estimating. There were diamonds⁠—some of them exceedingly large and fine⁠—a hundred and ten in all, and not one of them small; eighteen rubies of remarkable brilliancy;⁠—three hundred and ten emeralds, all very beautiful; and twenty-one sapphires, with an opal. These stones had all been broken from their settings and thrown loose in the chest. The settings themselves, which we picked out from among the other gold, appeared to have been beaten up with hammers, as if to prevent identification. Besides all this, there was a vast quantity of solid gold ornaments: nearly two hundred massive finger- and earrings; rich chains⁠—thirty of these, if I remember; eighty-three very large and heavy crucifixes; five gold censers of great value;