At the end of the war, the South, for all practical purposes, was broke . . . its paper money was worthless, its hard money virtually gone.Accordingly, bankers and businessmen from the North were shipping keg-loads of hard money – and especially silver coins – to the South to take advantage of the coins’ inflated purchasing power. In fact, the vast majority of coins shipped on the last fateful voyage of the S.S. Republic – and there were thousands upon thousands of these coins – were U.S. silver half-dollars. Silver coins can be adversely affected by salt water. Unless careful preventive steps are taken, long exposure to salt water can cause extensive corrosion and pitting of silver coins.

THE STORY OF THE S.S. REPUBLIC TREASURE

PAINSTAKINGLY CONSERVED, GRADED & CERTIFIED

From the moment they were first viewed on the ocean floor, great care was taken to protect and preserve the S.S. Republic coins. Each of the silver half-dollars recovered has been conserved by Numismatic Conservation Services, the country’s leading coin conservation facility, and certified by Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC) as having a “shipwreck effect.” Gold coins recovered from the shipwreck site have been graded and certified by NGC. Each gold and silver coin is individually numbered and sealed in a tamper-proof, clear acrylic capsule.