In the US, sold gold bars from the sunken steamer "Central America"
Photo © scoop.previewsworld.com
Recently, the attention of participants in the auction "US Gold Coins" auction house Heritage in Dallas attracted three lots - gold bars from the sunken steamer "Central America". The largest - Justh & Hunter weighing 5,735 kg - went under the hammer for $ 336 thousand. Two smaller bars: Blake & Co (0.415 kg) and Harris, Marchand & Co (0.544 kg) were sold for $ 156 thousand and $ 144 thousand, respectively.
Gold bars and coins from the crash site of "Central America" are regularly sold at auctions and are always in high demand from collectors. The tragedy with this wheeled steamer, which the New York Herald called the Terrible Disaster in 1857, is considered the largest in US history at sea.
In the autumn of 1857, “Central America” brought to New York more than 2 tons of gold in bars, coins, nuggets and sand, reclaimed by Californian prospectors. Gold was eagerly awaited in the banks of New York, where, due to the economic crisis of 1857–1858, there was a strong liquidity deficit.
New York bankers of gold did not wait. The ship hit a heavy storm and went to the bottom along with tons of gold and hundreds of passengers and crew members.
