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Odyssey recovers silver, gold coins and more at SS Central America shipwreck site...includes 1302 do
Goldbully
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One of the piles of gold coins, lying on the surface, outside the SS Central America shipwreck hull.
Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. has recovered more than 13,500 silver and gold coins, and gold ingots, or oblong blocks, from the SS Central America.
The Central American ship was a California Gold Rush ship that was caught in a hurricane in 1857 and sank 160 miles off the coast of South Carolina, according to a statement.
Odyssey has been working since April under contract to Ira Owen Kane, the receiver for Recovery Limited Partnership, the court-appointed salvor-in-possession of the SS Central America shipwreck, the statement said.
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USA Today........................
Millions of dollars worth of gold has been recovered from a famous 19th-century shipwreck off South Carolina being fought over in court, the first inventories of the salvaged cargo show.
A federal judge in Virginia overseeing the recovery effort from the SS Central America released the mid-April-to-mid-June tallies late Wednesday, the Associated Press and The Columbus Dispatch reported Thursday. An updated list is likely soon.
AP based the estimated value of the gold coins and bars on treasure that was sold for $50 million to $60 million after the shipwreck was found in 1988 by Tommy Thompson of Columbus, Ohio, now a fugitive and the target of lawsuits from jilted investors who bankrolled his expedition.
The New York-bound mail steamship sank during a hurricane in 1857, killing 425 people and sending tons of California Gold Rush fortune to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, about 160 miles off South Carolina. The lost cargo caused a financial panic.
Last week, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith settled an ownership dispute and granted salvage rights to Recovery Limited Partnership, which is run by a court-appointed receiver. Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration had been hired to lead the latest operation, which began in April.
The inventories show that 43 gold bars, 1,302 $20 double-eagle gold coins, 37 $10 eagle gold coins, and 9,053 10-cent silver coins have been brought to the surface. The chief scientist of the recovery told the Dispatch that the quality and variety of the coins, some dating to 1823, were "astonishing."
AP estimated that the $20 and $10 coins could sell for "up to $9 million, potentially more" based on proceeds from treasure recovered at an 1865 shipwreck.
Valuing gold bars is more complicated, because of "myriad factors," AP wrote. Citing Sotheby's estimates in 2000, bars weighing up to 54 pounds that were recovered initially from the SS Central America were worth "$8,000 to $250,000 each."
Salvage crews have discovered a trove of personal items, including eyeglasses and glass-plate photographs of at least 60 passengers. The salvager is working on how to safely retrieve the photos, known as ambrotypes.
Gold bars and coins came from the SS Central America, a mail steamship that sank in a hurricane in September 1857 off the Carolinas
USA Today Link
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Comments
I suspect some date/mm is about to become very common ... as long as you don't mind a sea salvaged example.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
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Eric
was brought up.
That would be so cool. And maybe worth an extra $5 or $10 on the final asking price.
They don't really look like gold ingots but what could they be?
However, the presence of so much silver coin on the ship raises a new question: why would so much silver coin be being transported from West to East?
<< <i>Can't wait to see a date-by-date inventory of all the non-gold coins recovered. Might answer my question of when did the larger-sized capped bust halves stop circulating.
However, the presence of so much silver coin on the ship raises a new question: why would so much silver coin be being transported from West to East? >>
An early "key date" coin hoarder must have been on board!
<< <i>I am going to sell all of my 1857-S dimes ASAP! >>
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Thanks for sharing this!
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<< <i>What fun it must be to be a part of the dive team on that crew! >>
Let's see, dive for fish or dive for gold and silver U.S. coinage?
edited to add: I found this to be an interesting statement:
The chief scientist of the recovery told the Dispatch that the quality and variety of the coins, some dating to 1823, were "astonishing."
<< <i>
<< <i>Can't wait to see a date-by-date inventory of all the non-gold coins recovered. Might answer my question of when did the larger-sized capped bust halves stop circulating.
However, the presence of so much silver coin on the ship raises a new question: why would so much silver coin be being transported from West to East? >>
An early "key date" coin hoarder must have been on board!
The above raises an excellent point. I'm reminded of people who owned gem 03 O Morgan dollars before the bag of them was discovered who lost their shirts on these coins. I also wonder the drop in value re gem 1857 S Double Eagles after the SS Central America Coins came to market in the 1990s.
"Seu cabra da peste,
"Sou Mangueira......."
I have to wonder if what we are looking at is the remains of a money vest and other personal items that were once worn by one of the passengers. The traces of the vest and the passenger are long gone but the metal remains.
Gold bars and a closer detail of the smallest bar found to date. Picture: Odyssey Marine Exploration
And how cool is this pic.......
Gold-rimmed spectacles. Picture: Odyssey Marine Exploration
Ambrotypes of original passengers. Picture: Odyssey Marine Exploration
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