Shipwreck's Coins Are Very Rare

AOL/AP ^ | 2008-05-14 | ALAN SAYRE,

[fishhound]

NEW ORLEANS (May 14) - A steamship that sank off the Louisiana coast during an 1846 storm has produced a trove of rare gold coins, including some produced at two largely forgotten U.S. Mints in the South, coin experts say. Last year, four Louisiana residents salvaged hundreds of gold coins and thousands of silver coins from the wreckage of the SS New York in about 60 feet of water in the Gulf of Mexico, said David Bowers, co-chairman of New York-based Stack's Rare Coins.

"Some of these are in uncirculated or mint condition," Bowers said, predicting the best could bring $50,000 to $100,000 apiece at auction.

Of particular interest to coin experts are gold pieces known as quarter eagles and half eagles, which carried face values of $2.50 and $5 in the days before the United States printed paper currency.

Those coins were struck at Mints in New Orleans; Charlotte, N.C.; and Dahlonega, Ga. The Charlotte and Dahlonega Mints operated from 1838, when the first significant U.S. gold deposits were found in those areas, until the start of the Civil War in 1861, said Douglas Mudd, curator of the American Numismatic Association's Money Museum in Denver. Neither reopened.

[HuntsvilleTxVeteran]

That was the hurricane that cut “Last Island” (a resort) into several pieces.

[DeaconBenjamin]

C for Charlotte, D for Dahlonega. As for rarity, I would direct you to Yeoman or the equivalent.

[wildbill]

I tried to post this yesterday, using the URL for the Lafayette paper story. It was refused by the FR system or monitor because it was also on the AP wire service.

I didn’t use AP anywhere in the heading as you have, how did you get this through?

[indcons]

Thanks fishhound. Think this might be a GGG topic.

[stainlessbanner]

Thanks for the ping fishound. I remember several years back, a big storm surged the beaches and folks were finding Spanish dubloons on Melbourne beach in FLA.

[fishhound]

I found it on the AOL news site. And posted it as I “AOL/AP” in the source field and it worked.

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

Whoops! Thanks fishhound!

[Monkey Face]

I told you not to sink that ship so close to land.... :o]

[csvset]

I attend auctions frequently. One auctioneer uses a phrase, " Boys! You just can't find 'em !", whenever there's a rare or what he'd like you to think is a rare item.

I'd imagine he'd be going ballistic over these coins.

Thanks for posting this.

[CJ Wolf]

‘topics’ you mean.

Great post. love reading about Shipwrecks and treasure and coins.

[MrsEmmaPeel]

Right you are. Take a look at these images of coins from Alexander the Great:

[TheLion]

I was watching the History Channel earlier with a piece of the SS Central America wreck. The finders that raised the 1857 gold took ten years in court fighting 30 some insurance companies to claimed they had paid out claims for the losses.

The company that brought up similiar treasure....only dated a little later than this one, ultimately got 92% of the value!