Authentic California Gold Rush era gold from the S.S. Central America’s sunken treasure, vintage coin-making tools and an eight ton coin press have been used in San Francisco to produce special commemorative gold pieces that now are available to the public. The gold is from the recovered cargo of the Central America, the fabled “Ship of Gold,” that sank in 1857 while carrying tons of Gold Rush treasure on a voyage to New York.

Some of the sunken treasure gold bars (ingots) have been used to produce commemorative gold pieces for the California Historical Society of San Francisco and the California Gold Marketing Group of Newport Beach. The design of the commemoratives is based on a rare $50 denomination gold “slug” originally made in 1855 on Montgomery Street in San Francisco by well-known assayers and coiners of the day, Kellogg & Company.

Each commemorative gold piece contains 2.5 ounces of pure Gold Rush era gold from large ingots created in 1857 by Kellogg & Humbert, the successor firm to Kellogg & Company. The big gold bars were among the tons of treasure recovered in the 1980s from the Central America that sank in a hurricane in September 1857 about 160 miles off the North Carolina coast.

A certificate of authenticity from the California Historical Society accompanies each gold piece. The project is expected to raise up to a quarter-million dollars for the nonprofit organization.

Please contact Ross Baldwin at [email protected] or visit the National Coin Broker website nationalcoinbroker.com for further information and availability 800-707-7923 or 305-785-5646.

From the original Press release dated July 26, 2001 – Donn Pearlman

“In an unprecedented first for numismatics, authentic California Gold Rush era ingots recovered from the fabled S.S. Central America and the original pair of assayers’ dies will be used to strike special commemorative gold pieces of the famous 1855 Kellogg & Company $50 round ‘slug.’

The cameo proof and uncirculated restrikes will be produced by the California Historical Society in San Francisco. Each coin will contain 2.5 ounces of pure Gold Rush era gold from renowned Kellogg & Humbert ingots.

‘The $50 slug is the “King of Territorial Gold.” These restrikes are a way for collectors to own a piece of Gold Rush history at a fraction of the cost of the unique ingots from the Central America,’ said Dwight Manley, Managing Partner of California Gold Marketing Group.

‘Transfer dies have been prepared from the original 1855 Kellogg & Company dies engraved by Ferdinand Gruner, and the planchets are made from Kellogg & Humbert gold bars from the ship’s 1857 cargo. In addition, the commemoratives will be struck in San Francisco on a coin press that was used at the San Francisco Mint,’ explained Manley.

‘A television documentary crew is chronicling each and every step of this historic event.’

A trial strike specimen will be on display during the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money convention in Atlanta, August 8 – 12, at the ‘Ship of Gold’ exhibit.

Formal striking of the commemoratives is scheduled to begin in San Francisco on August 20. That is the 144th anniversary of the exact date the gold sailed from San Francisco harbor on its journey to Panama where it then was taken by railroad to the Central America for its uncompleted, fabled 23-day voyage to New York City.

Only a dozen original 1855 Kellogg $50 slugs are known to exist. The largest denomination produced during the California Gold Rush, original examples have traded for as much as $300,000.

The commemorative’s design is slightly modified to differentiate it from the 1855 original. The ribbon in the eagle’s beak on the reverse contains the inscriptions ‘S.S. CENTRAL AMERICA GOLD’ and ‘C.H.S.’ for California Historical Society. There is no inscription on the ribbon in the original design.

The commemoratives are referenced in the 2002 edition of A Guide Book of United States (St. Martin’s Press, New York City), the annual, authoritative work known by collectors as the ‘Red Book.’

Known today as ‘the Ship of Gold,’ the Central America sank in a hurricane in 1857 while carrying several tons of California gold from Panama to New York City. The historic coins and gold bars were discovered in the late 1980s and purchased by Manley’s group in December 1999 in the world’s largest numismatic transaction.

More than 7,000 recovered coins and hundreds of ingots were quickly sold after entering the marketplace in phases starting in February 2000. Less than 500 coins and 100 ingots remain.

The suggested retail price of the Kellogg commemoratives will be approximately $5,000.

‘Due to the limited supply of authentic ingots, a maximum of only 5,000 authorized restrikes can be made. Each will be housed in a custom-made, hand-hammered copper frame reminiscent of the 1915 holders for commemorative gold coins of San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition,’ said Manley.

A certificate of authenticity from the California Historical Society will accompany each restrike. The project is expected to raise up to a quarter-million dollars for the nonprofit California Historical Society.

‘These magnificent coins, made using the original tools and gold from this important era of our country, will let people literally hold the Gold Rush in their hands,’ said Stephen Becker, Executive Director of the
California Historical Society. “We’re thrilled to help history come alive by bringing this project to San Francisco.”

‘It’s really amazing that this gold and these dies have survived to the present day. It’s a tremendous historical coincidence,’ said Bob Evans, curator of the treasure and the chief scientist and historian on the 1980s mission that found and recovered the gold.

The working transfer dies were crafted from original Kellogg dies previously owned by territorial gold specialist and author, Donald Kagin of Tiburon, California. The dies were not aboard the Central America. (Not made of gold, the metal dies would have been destroyed if they had been on the ocean floor for more than 130 years with the treasure.)

‘Outside of a museum, these are the only known surviving dies from a private assayer of that era. The dies still contained some gold flakes from 1855,’ Kagin explained.

‘When the Kellogg and Humbert ingots first became available on the market, I thought it would be a great idea to produce restrikes from the original gold. The historical importance of this can not be overstated,’ he said.

The recovered ship’s cargo contained 330 Kellogg & Humbert ingots. About 60 of them, each weighing roughly 200 to 500 ounces, have been used to produce the planchets for the gold commemoratives.

Manley said the current market value of the melted ingots ranged from $200,000 to nearly $1 million. Evans emphasized that steps were taken to save identifiable portions of each bar.

‘We wanted to preserve the ingots’ historical assayers’ marks for posterity. The faces of the bars were carefully cut and milled to permanently retain a layer of gold that contains the fundamental information,
such as the ingot’s weight and fineness, as well as the Kellogg & Humbert imprint,’ explained Evans.

Production of the restrikes involved months of planning to find a suitable site in San Francisco. The California Historical Society could not physically host the coin striking because of the size and weight of the coining press, 16,000 pounds.

The press originally was used at the San Francisco Mint between 1973 and 1998.

‘This is nice for someone to be able to afford a piece of those ingots. The gold was supposed to be made into coins in 1857, so it’s finally fulfilling its destiny. It is a terrific idea to produce a collectible like this,’ said dealer Anthony Terranova of New York City, a specialist in early U.S. coins and territorial gold.

‘People make collectibles out of all sorts of things, such as sports items, so why not this, a glittering piece of the Old West? I think it’s a wonderful idea.’

Manley agreed: ‘It’s the only national treasure that is “divisible,” and we’ve acted on that. Instead of 60 potential treasure owners, we’ve turned that into 5,000. We’ve created the opportunity for 5,000 additional people to own a piece of the treasure at a fraction of the price that a Kellogg & Humbert ingot or what an original $50 slug would have cost.’

Please contact Ross Baldwin at [email protected] or visit the National Coin Broker website nationalcoinbroker.com for further information and availability 800-707-7923 or 305-785-5646.

1857-S $20  Double Eagles – SS Central America Treasure Coins

Ross C. Baldwin, President of National Coin Broker has always been partial to coins with a story. “Nothing  seems to galvanize collectors more than  the thought of  a treasure ship or the thrill of  finding a cache of rare coins in their own backyard,” says Mr Baldwin.  Pedigree is also very important  to the new breed of collector/investor. For the initiated or the newbie National Coin Broker would like to provide the following narrative.

Bound for New York City with 578 passengers and crew, and 38,000 pieces of mail, the SS Central America also held tons of gold coins, ingots, nuggets, and yellow dust mined from the western gold fields during the historic California Gold Rush. Originally named, S.S. George Law, the proud vessel was a three-masted, 272-feet long side-wheel style steamship. Before that fateful trip which began in August of 1857, the SS Central America made 43 round trips between New York City and Panama. Each leg of the passage usually took between 19 to 24 days to complete according to ships logs from 1852 to1857. Quite amazingly the Central America transported an estimated one-third of the entire California Gold Rush yield, which was valued at the time at approximately $150 million.  On her final voyage, the estimated official value on board then was about $1,600,000 in bullion alone, plus other undocumented gold that had not been declared for insurance.

When the SS Central America sank in deep water off the coast of the Carolina’s during a powerful and catastrophic hurricane on September 12^th 1857, some men, women and children were able to miraculously escape by rowboat to the Barc Ellen, a rescue ship. Tragically, the gallant Captain Herndon, and hundreds of other souls went down with the ship. The SS Central America, is classified as the worst peacetime disaster at sea in American History. However, in time, the vessel and contents was largely forgotten. In 1989, utilizing sophisticated recovery techniques, employing a robotic device and a special chemical preservative compound to envelop the artifacts discovered, the team brought to the surface a vast treasure of numismatic items, including a large quantity of 1857-S Double Eagles in pristine condition, which had been part of the SS Central’s shipment from the San Francisco Mint to the New York Assay Office. Lost for 131 years, the Central America shipwreck is an extraordinary time compendium of coin and other antiquities that can be forever pedigreed. Now here is a “golden” opportunity for the astute collector and investor to take ownership in historic gold Double eagles minted from “Gold Rush” metal and recovered as treasure. Our superb coins are encapsulated and graded by either PCGS or NGC with SS Central America on the certification slip. Ross C. Baldwin President/CEO of National Coin Brokers can highly  recommend acquiring one or more of these golden jewels . “These coins are a great investment from one of  maritime’s greatest tragedies. The fact that the shipwreck coins are in virtually pristine condition makes them all the more desirable for both the astute collector and investor”.  Mr Baldwin feels that these coins offer a great value, “Due to the finding of SS Central America, the 1857-S  Double Eagle is actually the most affordable  Type I $20 Lib” Amazingly if it were not for the cache of pristine coins salvaged from the ocean floor we would not have the limited availability of the historic coin today. Please contact me  at [email protected] or visit my website nationalcoinbroker.com for further information and  availability 800-707-7923 or 305-785-5646.