SS Central America

Be careful trying to buy coins that are supposed to be from a famous shipwreck. How to identify a shipwreck coin should be left to the experts. It is hard to determine if a coin is a shipwreck coin just by looking at it. How is the average person supposed to know if a coin was hidden in a shipwreck for over a hundreds of years? Even if a coin is actually from a shipwreck it could be in terrible condition and not worth very much. However, those salvaged in good to excellent condition can be worth a lot of money. Especially, if they are a from a rare date and only a few surviving coins actually exist.

Austin Rare Coins & Bullion is one of the premier shipwreck coin dealers in the United States. They know how to identify a shipwreck coin. In fact, they specialize in high-end shipwreck coins dating back to 1845. Above all, they only deal in shipwreck coins certified and authenticated by NGC

There is no easy answer regarding who owns the gold from the S.S. Central America. The S.S. Central America, also know as the “Ship of Gold,” sank in a hurricane off the cost of the Carolinas with tons of gold from the San Francisco mint. In addition, there were gold coins, ingots, gold dust, and various bullion coins from the California Gold Rush that went down with the ship. In fact, the enormous loss of gold has been described as the greatest economic catastrophe in all of U.S. maritime history.

I took over a 150 years to find the Ship of Gold sitting at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. The ship was located by the Columbus-America Discovery Group of Ohio, led by Tommy Gre

Occasionally customers call and ask us, "Can I buy gold ingots?" Many of them are especially interested in gold ingots from the SS Central American Shipwreck. What's interesting is where these gold ingots came from—The California Gold rush. It was a very fascinating time in American History.

This is when massive fortunes were made and lost. Most importantly, gold remained a testament to this exciting time period. Prospectors were frantic to discover it. They took gold nuggets in rocks to gold dust in rivers. This raw gold was turned into gold coins and bars—called ingots.

The gold was first mined in the California Hills and then taken to private refiners or assayers. They would weigh the gold and estimate its purity. Furthermore, it paid the miners for their hard work. The gold was amassed by the refiners, so the assayers could melt and ref