Young Techies Recover the Greatest Treasure Ever Discovered:

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Young Techies Discover the Greatest Gold Treasure Discovered… See Recovery Video Here

Early California Was a “Gold Dust” Economy

On December 5, 1848, in his annual message to Congress, President James Knox Polk stated that gold had been found in California, and in large quantities. Specimens were sent to the Philadelphia Mint for analysis, where the assayers found the metal to be of unbelievable quality. The Gold Rush was on!

Immigrants coming to California by land or sea brought pans, shovels, containers for gold,  contraptions for processing gold, etc., but few thought to bring much in the way of money. Thus, by the summer of 1849 there were tens of thousands of newcomers in California, but not enough coins to go around. Trade was conducted in gold dust, such as a “pinch” as payment for a saloon libation. Thus the cliché, ”A little pinch’ll do.” Early California was a “gold dust” economy.

Obviously, dust was not a preferred form of money. It is difficult to count dust and also impossible to accurately measure value because of the varying purity of the raw gold. Historians’ estimate that during those times, gold in dust form would bring half as much as if it were in the form of coin that was issued by the United States Mint.

Private Mints & Assayers

Paper money was not used in the West and certainly not accepted in foreign exchange. Gold coins and bullion bars were money. The shortage of coins continued throughout the mid-I850s. Private minters and assayers, including Kellogg & Company, Moffat & Company and ED. Kohler, fulfilled the need for the manufacturing of money, transforming the raw gold ore, dust and nuggets into rectangular gold ingots or coins. Much like a bank, the reputation of the coin or ingot’s maker was a guarantee of value. To be successful, an assayer had to have a completely unblemished reputation, his word to be, literally, “as good as gold.”

Assaying was a very difficult process, and because of this, relatively few firms entered the business. Not only was a high degree of scientific expertise needed, but facilities were required for the melting and processing of gold not to speak of the storage of incoming gold as well as for ingots and coins prepared for customers.

As gold poured forth from the rivers, streams and hills of California, it made its way to assayers in San Francisco, Sacramento and Marysville… from there to distant points, most notably New York City and London. While coins were needed for the rapidly expanding western economy, both small and large monetary ingots, which were stamped with the U.S. Dollar value, were used to settle large domestic transactions and for international exchange.

Assayer Transaction

The California gold rush phenomenon warranted an efficient means for miners to convert their hard-earned raw gold into a form that was readily accepted. This necessity caused the advent of the private monetary ingots. Assayer ingots soon became the standard method to deal with the massive flow of new California gold.
First, a gold miner would stockpile a cache of raw gold dust and nuggets. Then, based on word–of-mouth reputation, location and fees, the miner would select one of the competing assaying offices. The miner would deposit his bag of gold and get a written receipt with the assayers’ inventory identification number and a gross weight. It was customary for the miners to return within 24 hours to pick up their refined gold.

The assayer would melt the raw gold and refine-out impurities and base metals such as iron. What remained was gold and silver. Gold ingots of this form arc called “unparted” gold ingots. The molten gold was poured into a mold of a size that corresponded to that miner’s lot size. After the bar cooled, the assayer would clip off two opposite corners of the bar to retain as his fee and also to use for the assaying process. Once assayed to determine the purity of gold, the precise weight and fineness (represented in thousandths) were stamped on the bar along with its unique I.D. serial number, which matched the miner’s receipt. Also, the assayer would stamp the exact U.S. Dollar value. This transformed bullion into a medium of exchange, which was easily accepted for large transaction domestically and internationally making it real money and numismatically important.

Historical Treasure

In a democracy like the United States, there is no king, pharaoh, or czar, and hence no crowns, royal jewels, or pharaohs’ tombs. Accumulated treasures that do exist in America are either public or private, including great collections of art or other important cultural relics. On rare occasions, a significant treasure may be accumulated accidentally, the result of a profound act of nature.

The sinking of the SS Central America created just such an accidental accumulation of treasure. Bound for New York with tons of gold ingots, coins, nuggets, and dust mined from the California gold fields, its loss created a unique time capsule of information and artifacts of an era in which the very character and spirit of America blossomed.

While many historical objects, accessories, ship components and other items recovered from the SS Central America are being preserved for study by institutions and others, there were enough gold ingots and coins that this became a historic national treasure that could be shared.
Thus, monetary ingots and coins of a quality and type that had rarely been seen before, and would have been unavailable generally at any cost, are being offered to an enthusiastic worldwide audience of museums, historians, and collectors. Special presentations of selected examples have been made to the American Numismatic Association, the California Historical Society, and other museums.

Deep Blue Sea Pedigreed

“The Greatest Treasure Ever Found” is what LIFE Magazine, March 1992, named the fantastic bounty of perfectly preserved early California gold numismatic relics. For 131 years, these historic treasures were lost in the frigid, lightless depths of the Atlantic, encapsulated (and perfectly preserved) in the wreck of a once elegant 19th century US Mail Steamship, the SS Central America. Using advanced scientific methodologies and inventions, the Columbus-America Discovery Group recovered the gold treasure trove, so massive that its loss in 1857 triggered a series of bank failures, referred to as “The Panic of ’57.”

The disaster is the greatest peacetime loss at sea in American history. The account of the bizarre story is so astonishing that The History Channel airs a documentary on the subject regularly. Other programs have run frequently including the Discovery Channel, Dateline and Morning Magazine, along with many newspaper and magazine accounts. Because the SS Central America’s rare treasures of the California Gold Rush symbolize classic Americana, and this true monetary gold was so well preserved in the state and place it was since 1857, collectors and investors are seizing the opportunity to acquire these rare and unique numismatic treasures.

What makes these gold rush artifacts superior numismatically and historically is that we know exactly where and how they have been preserved since 1857. More astonishing, they are the only important numismatic items where we actually have movie footage (thanks to the revolutionary underwater robot, NEMO) of the place in which they were stored almost 150 years ago.
Just as the name “Titanic” fosters emotion, the “Ship of Gold” will truly live on because of the fantastic historical retrospection. Keep in mind that Warner Brothers purchased the movie rights to the New York Times best seller Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea.

Why Now?

…Because these special treasure pieces are unique, priceless, and symbolic of the historic cultures that created them. Most importantly, they are attainable… for now.
More than just a collection of precious metals, they represent the heart and soul of a nation created in a turbulent time when our country came of age. Accumulated treasures that do exist in America are either public or private, such as great collections of art or other important cultural relics. However, these tend to lack either the intrinsic monetary value or the national symbolism of traditional historic national treasures. On rare occasions, a significant historic treasure may be accumulated accidentally, the result of an act of nature, an act of God, or a twist of fate. The sinking and recovery of the SS Central America is just such a rare occasion. It offers you the opportunity to hold a piece of historic treasure in your private collection from the “Greatest Treasure Ever Found.”

The Importance of Assayers

Evaluating raw gold and determining its fineness (percentage of purity, expressed in thousandths, such as 930 fine), weight, and other characteristics involved considerable expertise, expensive equipment, security arrangements, and other considerations. Further, the changing of the raw gold into “convenient shapes,” i.e., coins or bars, had to be done by an individual or company whose integrity was such that the imprint on the gold ingots would be accepted without question in New York or London. Any assayer who proposed to set up a business would be subject to close scrutiny and criticism for the slightest mistake.
The assayers on the following tabs below were well known during the California gold rush days. Until the recovery of the S.S. Central America treasure, very few assayer bars remain from the mid 1800’s. Each of the assayer bars listed would be welcomed in any museum, but are now available to individual collectors. Contact Finest Known today to determine the availability of the ingots listed on the following tabs.

Contact Finest Known today for information on monetary ingot availability and acquisition terms. Arrangements can be made to suit many financial requirements. For qualified customers, current inventory status and comparable prices realized are available upon request at 888-900-9948.