2018-02-10 Sat

In 2014, Odyssey Marine Exploration Inc. salvaged gold from the SS Central America. The treasure will be put out on display from 22nd February to 24th February at Long Beach Coin, Currency, Stamp & Sports Collectible Expo in California.

This will be the first public display of a portion of the historic gold and silver coins, gold ingots and unopened sacks of treasure gold dust recovered during the 2014 expedition to the Atlantic Ocean site where the Gold Rush-era cargo was lost at sea 161 years ago. The California Gold Marketing Group LLC acquired the treasure in a court-approved transaction this past November and will be displaying the legendary trove for its first public view.

California Gold Marketing Group is scheduled to market the treasure salvaged during the start of this year.

This is the second edition of treasure displayed from the downed ship, the first being mounted as the “Ship of Gold” exhibit more than 15 years ago, as California Gold Marketing Group marketed treasure salvaged from the shipwreck site during the late 1980s by Columbus-American Discovery Group. That treasure was valued at more than $100 million and was quickly dispersed into the numismatic marketplace.

The exhibit will showcase the original Ship of Gold hardware but all of the treasure that will be displayed in the Long Beach in February will be never-before-exhibited coins, ingots, gold dust and other items discovered and retrieved in 2014.

A 280-foot-long, three-masted side-wheel steamship, the SS Central America carried tons of California gold that had been shipped from San Francisco to Panama, on its way to New York. Voyaging from Aspinwall, Panama, to New York City in September 1857, the ship sank in a hurricane. The shipwreck site and the gold were discovered off the Carolina coast, more than 7,000 feet below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, in September 1988.

The Ship of Gold exhibit debuted at the February 2000 Long Beach Expo wherein a 40-foot long re-creation of the famous ship’s hull was made. It displayed a portion of the vast treasure from the first SS Central America recovery operations. That exhibit subsequently was seen over the years by millions of people across the United States and overseas.

Chief scientist Robert D. Evans will also attend the event and greet visitors. He was on the 1980s mission that first located and recovered a portion of the fabulous sunken treasure and also assisted with the 2014 recovery.

This latest display will showcase many of the 3,100 gold coins, more than 10,000 silver coins and 45 gold ingots that have been held in secure vaults since they were retrieved from the ocean floor four years ago. All the coins are now being certified by Professional Coin Grading Service.

“The exhibit also includes a type of historic SS Central America items never before displayed: leather satchels filled with more than 1,000 ounces of 1857 California gold dust that were recovered from a safe on the sunken ship,” exclaimed Manley.

“This is truly an international discovery. In addition to all the United States coins, the trove includes many coins from around the world, including two Australian gold sovereigns struck in Sydney in 1855 and 1856, and both are the finest known. There also are gold coins from France, including a Napoleon 20 francs, British gold sovereigns of Queen Victoria, Mexican eight escudos, Netherlands ducats, Dutch guldens and Peruvian gold, too,” Manley said.

On Jan. 9, 2018, the California Gold Marketing Group received Ohio court approval and formally took possession of the treasure recovered in 2014 from the SS Central America. The treasure had already been transported from Florida to the Professional Coin Grading Service headquarters in California but remained in 38 unopened containers that were sealed in June 2014.