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Question about SSCA Justh & Hunter Ingot certification
lermish
Posts: 5,086 ✭✭✭✭✭
This lovely ingot is up for sale at Heritage next week and is currently at $90k hammer which , with BP, represents roughly $30k premium over melt.

Why is the date (1855-1858)? The SS Central America went down September 12, 1857. Why didn't PCGS date this (1855-1857)?
As far as I can tell, this is the only ingot under the PCGS#967311 which means (if I am correct) that the spec number was created for this ingot. Or, if it's a catch-all spec number, why didn't they create a new one for this bar?
It's a minor point but, since the label is not pedigreed SSCA, an important one (IMO) that should not have been missed on this expensive of an item.
chopmarkedtradedollars.com
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Perhaps...but did PCGS really not know the provenance of this piece? There are not many of them and it's quite an expensive item.
chopmarkedtradedollars.com
Anyone buying that would almost certainly research it, and know what they were getting.
I'm not 100% positive on this but I'm fairly confident that the only surviving examples of this ingot were recovered from the ssca. I don't think there are any NON shipwreck examples.
chopmarkedtradedollars.com
I agree but that doesn't mean that the label shouldn't be accurate.
chopmarkedtradedollars.com
Listed on page 21 of this digitized publication. The second link is a 28 page PDF of not just the various ingots and serials but other gold recovered.
https://finestknown.com/california-gold-rush-monetary-ingots/#tab_justh-&-hunter
https://finestknown.com/wp-content/uploads/Finest-Known_14_SSCA-Ship-of-Gold-Catalog-Brochure.pdf
If I owned it, I would break it out of the slab to touch and feel it. The holder does nothing for it.