1865 P (SS Republic) Gold $20 Liberty Head NGC MS65

SS Republic

As the drumbeat of the American Civil War began to dissipate a number of events transpired that could have catapulted the country right back into turmoil.

The assassination of Abraham Lincoln by the hand of John Wilkes Booth or the ongoing guerilla warfare could have fanned the dying flames. Or, it could have been the sinking of the SS Republic – which substantially weakened the North’s financial leverage during a critical moment.

The SS Republic is a story we all have heard before. A sidewheel steamer that loses its grip to mother nature during a ferocious hurricane off the Atlantic seaboard.

With it went thousands of gold and silver specie which could have funded reconstruction efforts or gone to various other causes.

Story coins have always been the desire of the most respected numismatists throughout the World. This 1865 $20 couples a Civil War story with the SS Republic pedigree, and is graded an incredible Gem MS65 after more than a century and a half at the bottom of the ocean.

There is just a single example known finer, and the opportunity is unlikely to repeat itself anytime in the immediate future.