1857-S Liberty Head Double Eagle. Variety-20B. Bold S. Gold S.S. Central America Label. MS-65 (PCGS).Both sides of this beautiful Gem display frosty golden-wheat luster enhanced by blushes of warmer golden-apricot around the borders. Fully struck with carefully preserved surfaces, this coin will be just right for an advanced gold type set or specialized cabinet of Liberty Head double eagles.<p><p>The year 1857 saw two major events occur that had lasting effects on the United States economy. During the early 1850s, the railroads began a rapid expansion throughout the nation to unite the major commercial centers and eventually the East Coast with the West Coast. In the process, railroad companies embarked on an ambitious construction spree which required considerable financing that banks were eager to provide. Many of these railroad companies were built on empty promises and no assets. The bubble in railroad stocks burst in the summer of 1857, beginning a bear market that accelerated rapidly after several major companies failed. On August 24, the dam broke when the Ohio Life Insurance & Trust Company collapsed. That failure precipitated a massive run on the banks that left in ruin thousands of banks, businesses reliant on those banks, and the people reliant on those businesses.<p><p>While this financial disaster, the Panic of 1857, unfolded across the nation, another tragedy exacerbated the economic failures and claimed hundreds of lives. On September 9, the <em>S.S. Central America</em>, a side-wheel steamer operated by the United States Mail Steamship Company encountered an Atlantic hurricane off the coast of North Carolina and tried to ride out the storm. Despite valiant efforts by Captain William Herndon and the passengers and crew to keep the ship from sinking, it was to no avail. On the 12th when two small vessels were spotted, Captain Herndon gave the order to abandon ship, deployed lifeboats and tried to rescue as many people as possible, with women and children first. That evening, the <em>Central America</em> slipped beneath the waves with Captain Herndon maintaining his position on the wheel box until the very end. <p>Also on board the <em>Central America</em> was a staggering 15 tons of gold in assayer ingots, gold dust, and coins worth $8 million at the time, or roughly half a billion dollars in todays accounting. The ship was lost over a particularly deep part of the Atlantic that made recovery impossible for generations. In the 1980s a group of treasure hunters and explorers believed they had located where the ship and its gold had come to rest on the ocean bottom. After years of exploration and searching with side-scan sonar and remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), the wreck was located in 1988, and over the next several years, several tons of gold assayer ingots, gold dust, and gold coins were recovered. Litigation over the disposition of the treasure took a number of years, bit it was eventually determined that the discovery team was entitled to 92% of the recovered treasure. Exploration still continues by Odyssey Marine Exploration.<p><p>Among this fantastic treasure were approximately 5,400 freshly struck 1857-S double eagles. Before the recovery of the <em>Central America</em> coins, the best example of a Type I double eagle struck at the San Francisco Mint would be in the AU range. Thanks to the recovery of this treasure ship and others, numismatists can now acquire not only a Mint State example, but even a Gem, as the majority of the double eagles recovered from the <em>S.S. Central America</em> are at the Choice to Gem Mint State level. Due to careful conservation under the eye of scientist and discoverer Bob Evans, the surfaces of these coins appear as sparkling as the day they left the San Francisco Mint. This gorgeous Gem will attract considerable attention from double eagle specialists, as well as enthusiasts of Gold Rush history and shipwreck lore.<p><p><strong>This lot includes the original box, case and Certificate of Authenticity for the coin as distributed by California Gold Marketing Group, LLC.</strong> The supporting materials are available to the winning bidder upon request to Stacks Bowers Galleries at the close of the auction.PCGS# 70001. NGC ID: 2696.Ex S.S. Central America.
