Gold worth millions recovered from 1857 shipwreck

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Gold worth millions recovered from 1857 shipwreck
July 17, 2014 / http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/07/17/shipwreck-atlantic-gold-rush/12800743/

Millions of dollars worth of gold has been recovered from a famous 19th-century shipwreck off South Carolina being fought over in court, the first inventories of the salvaged cargo show.

A federal judge in Virginia overseeing the recovery effort from the SS Central America released the mid-April-to-mid-June tallies late Wednesday, the Associated Press and The Columbus Dispatch reported Thursday. An updated list is likely soon.

AP based the estimated value of the gold coins and bars on treasure that was sold for $50 million to $60 million after the shipwreck was found in 1988 by Tommy Thompson of Columbus, Ohio, now a fugitive and the target of lawsuits from jilted investors who bankrolled his expedition.

The New York-bound mail steamship sank during a hurricane in 1857, killing 425 people and sending tons of California Gold Rush fortune to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean, about 160 miles off South Carolina. The lost cargo caused a financial panic.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Rebecca Beach Smith settled an ownership dispute and granted salvage rights to Recovery Limited Partnership, which is run by a court-appointed receiver. Tampa-based Odyssey Marine Exploration had been hired to lead the latest operation, which began in April.

The inventories show that 43 gold bars, 1,302 $20 double-eagle gold coins, 37 $10 eagle gold coins, and 9,053 10-cent silver coins have been brought to the surface. The chief scientist of the recovery told the Dispatch that the quality and variety of the coins, some dating to 1823, were "astonishing."

AP estimated that the $20 and $10 coins could sell for "up to $9 million, potentially more" based on proceeds from treasure recovered at an 1865 shipwreck.

Valuing gold bars is more complicated, because of "myriad factors," AP wrote. Citing Sotheby's estimates in 2000, bars weighing up to 54 pounds that were recovered initially from the SS Central America were worth "$8,000 to $250,000 each."

Salvage crews have discovered a trove of personal items, including eyeglasses and glass-plate photographs of at least 60 passengers. The salvager is working on how to safely retrieve the photos, known as ambrotypes.

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APNewsBreak: Shipwreck's Gold Inventory Released
July 17, 2014 / http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/apnewsbreak-shipwrecks-gold-inventory-released-24602782

 Deep-sea explorers recovered millions of dollars in gold and silver and a slew of personal items that are a virtual time capsule of the California Gold Rush, according to newly unsealed court documents obtained by The Associated Press that provide the first detailed inventory of a treasure trove being resurrected from an 1857 shipwreck at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean.

The recovery effort at the SS Central America shipwreck, about 200 miles off the South Carolina coast, began in April and is expected to continue throughout the summer.

The operation is being directed by a court-appointed receiver of an Ohio company that had been led by a treasure hunter-turned-fugitive named Tommy Thompson, who first found the Central America in 1988 — a monumental achievement funded by a group of central Ohio investors who never saw a penny.

Immediately after finding the ship and recovering a fraction of its garden of gold, Thompson became embroiled in a decades-long legal battle over who had rights to the treasure and how it was being dispersed. None of the investors ever saw a return, despite the gold selling for about $50 million, though Thompson's supporters say the vast majority went toward legal fees and loans.

In August 2012, after he failed to show up for several court hearings, a warrant was issued for Thompson's arrest. He has been a federal fugitive ever since.

Meanwhile, the Central America and its gold sat untouched since 1991, the last time Thompson and his team were at the site.

The new recovery operation was made possible after the court-appointed receiver awarded a contract to Tampa, Florida-based Odyssey Marine Exploration to conduct the recovery in hopes of bringing up more treasure and paying back investors.

The inventories, unsealed by a federal judge in Virginia late Wednesday, show that Odyssey Marine has brought up 43 solid gold bars, 1,300 $20 double eagle gold coins, and thousands more gold and silver coins.

Bob Evans, an Ohio scientist who was on both the original and current expeditions, said in a statement "the variety and quality of the coins being recovered is just astonishing."

He said the double eagles are just as "spectacular" as the ones recovered more than 25 years ago, but that the most recent recovery has resulted in a wider variety of coins.

 "I have seen what I believe are several of the finest known examples," Evans said. "The coins date from 1823 to 1857 and represent a wonderful diversity of denominations and mints, a time capsule of virtually all the coins that were used in 1857."

It's unclear how much more gold is left in the Central America and estimates have varied wildly, with some saying there could have been up to 21 tons on the ship when it sank.

Odyssey Marine could not immediately provide an estimate of what the gold that has been recovered so far is worth, but it's easily in the millions, based on past sales of such items.

For instance, thousands of $10 and $20 gold coins sold by Odyssey Marine from the SS Republic, which sank off the southeastern U.S. in 1865, sold for an average of about $6,700 a coin.

That would mean the $10 and $20 gold coins recovered from the Central America so far could sell for up to $9 million, potentially more.

Gold bars vary in value depending on myriad factors. In 2000, Sotheby's estimated that gold bars recovered from the Central America between 1988 and 1991, which weighed up to 54 pounds, were worth between $8,000 and $250,000 each.