Lot 731
1857-S. No Serif, High S. PCGS graded MS-65. Slabbed with a special Gold Foil Label #3202 for S.S. Central America #1. Incredible eye appeal and with amazing surfaces that show only a few trivial signs of handling--or perhaps we should say transport nicks. This one never circulated, it was on its way East from San Francisco when it happened to catch the doomed ship the S.S. Central America coming up from Panama. This modern (for the time) sidewheeler had steam driven engines which turned a large wheel mounted on each side of the ship, much like a mill wheel grinds flour, but here the wheel is used to push the ship through the open water of the ocean. In mid September this ship ran across a large hurricane which eventually swamped the ship, causing it to sink with over 400 people still on board, and one of the largest cargos of gold ever lost at sea. The ship was found around 1990 and much of the gold recovered in multiple complex dives using automated devices to drop nearly 2 miles below the ocean surface to where the shipwreck lies. Recovered were coins unimaginable in quality, as mint fresh as the day they were coined, along with Territorial gold bars and countless other artifacts of the Gold Rush era in California. Pop 1; the finest example graded at PCGS for the variety. (PCGS # 70006) Estimated Value $14,000 - UP
Ex S.S. Central America.
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