Potosí, a city in the Bolivian Andes at 4,090 metres altitude, is home to Cerro Rico ("Rich Mountain"), the most famous and productive silver deposit in world history. Exploited by the Spanish from 1545 onwards, Cerro Rico supplied between one-third and one-half of all the silver circulating in the world during the 16th–18th centuries, financing the Spanish Empire and shaping the global economy. The Royal Silver Mines of Potosí, Bolivia, Limited is a British company created to work the silver mines of Cerro Rico in the 1880s, a period of Bolivian mining revival. Incorporated under the Companies Acts 1862 to 1880, it had a capital of £600,000 divided into 30,000 preference shares of £10 (with 10% cumulative preferential dividend on the paid-up amount) and 6,000 deferred or ordinary shares of £50 (rights to half the residual profits). Certificate N°632 of one preference share of £10 (N°14163) was issued to M. Georges Garreau-Domlaste, residing at 5bis Avenue du Roule, Neuilly-sur-Seine (Seine), on 28 March 1885. Signed by two Directors (Eng. Brasnard and Frank de Fortona) and the Secretary. The vignette of the Cerro Rico de Potosí adorning this document is of great beauty and strong symbolism: it is the iconic representation of the most famous silver mountain in the world. An exceptional document combining world silver history with Bolivian scripophily.