U.S. Double Eagles Analysis Project

For the past 2 years I have been working on a comprehensive analysis of US Double Eagles. For as many books, articles, posts, etc on the subject, everything seems to be recycling the same information. My project is basically a timeline starting in 1849 and ending in 2014 analyzing each year/mint-mark. It is a priceguide. It is a population report (one of the more troublesome areas due to resubmissions). It is a data-base. It is a survival count. The latter being the part that is giving me the most trouble.

I own every single book on the subject. I have binders of information such as articles referencing shipwreck recovery and the Year/Mint-Mark brought to the surface, notable auctions, etc. Some of these articles date back to the 1800's. I also have a digital file with articles and reports.

If anyone has an obscure piece of information, article, book, anything, please, share it here. I plan to one day release my work as an interactive website that is searchable in a database format. In fact, the website exists in a primitive format as I have one of the IT guys at one of my companies working on it who is also a numismatist (who also designed our CRM and website). Anything shared will be properly referenced and anyone who wishes to be credited will be, please just PM me how you would like to be notated.

I don't care how obscure, minute, etc the information you may or may not have is. I wish to leave no stone unturned.

 

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I wonder how much is just physically unknowable? Who would ever know how many bags were brought back from overseas? Who would ever know how many of them might have gotten melted, and which one survived but are just in someone's sdb? I have some in mine, unslabbed. Now only one is scarcish date, but none are slabbed and they probably will not see the light of day for a few more decades at least. I am a small timer. I have heard some families put these away by the bag. Also, I do believe there are still some banks in Europe who still hold some of these in their vaults.

I think its a wonderful project, and wish you the best of luck. I am just throwing out some issues I have thought about before for anyone attempting such a project. The quantities were massive. Did you read the passage by David Bowers when he went to Europe in the 70's? He was at a single bank and asked to buy some double eagles. When they gave him the quote they said, "well this price is only good for the first 200,000 coins. Any more and we would need to discuss further".

 

I was one of the original numismatic researchers for the recovery of the S.S. Central America, and visited Tommy Thompson and his family at home many times. In those pre-Internet days, the best I could finally tell him was that for any ship coming from the West Coast, any coins were likely to be at least 90% gold half eagles to double eagles, minted less than 5 years before the wreck, and that he would find a few new bars and ingots previously unknown or only rumored to exist. That somewhat vague prediction was right on target. The Central America turned the rare gold market upside-down, of course, just like the release of GSA Carson City dollars and the additional release of scarce O-mint Morgans. Nobody knows what's left in European vaults, or what's been melted, or what's being held off the market for the moment.

No one can "analyze" the double eagle "market" -- you can only respond, cautiously, to advertisements and auctions.

 

Yes, sorry. That is exactly what I meant.

 

I would unfortunately have to disagree; along with the authors of ALL of the books through time on the subject. I would agree that it is a dynamic and changing market, which is why I want to present my research in a modifiable medium to reflect auctions, discoveries, hoards, etc. But I appreciate your input.

Also, I didn't really post this for peoples opinions. It was more of just a source in the hopes of finding some unfound piece of information (ie, the first sentence of my post). It is however, disappointing that someone such as yourself that was so close to such a momentous event doesn't have anything of value to add. Should you remember anything, please, PM me.

 

I appreciate your concerns, however, please, do not waste much time worrying. This is a project of passion. God himself could tell me a list of reasons why I shouldn't do it and I assure everyone I would continue.

For example, one of your concerns regards how would one know which were melted. I was able to locate a receipt from a smelter in Florida that noted specifically how many and what year a specific client brought to him to have reduced to bars of .999 quality.

So, again, I appreciate people may not think this is do-able, worth my time, etc. But I am going to anyway. Thats how I am. If I want to do something, I do it. Its worked so far.

 

Regarding the Central America, my job was done after I examined some mint records and made some educated guesses. To my knowledge, none of the investors ever had any particular say-so on the next several years' worth of activities. It was exciting at the time, over 30 years ago.

Also, at the point I was marginally involved, the odds against success were very, very large, and while the hardware might have been conceptualized, I don't think any had been built yet. I gave my time (free) out of gratitude for the real estate listing and subsequent referrals.

I am disappointed, however, that I never heard from any of the searchers again, no doubt reflecting the WW2 adage that "loose lips sink ships". Even a postcard from Tahiti would have been nice.

 

I never said you shouldn't pursue it. I was simply bringing up issues I thought of when I thought about such a project. I thought maybe you had some solutions.

 

Likewise, not intended as criticism. But there are good reasons to step back and imagine the end result and what credibility it will have in the marketplace.

 

In the 2 years I have been doing this I have encountered more issues than have been brought up here. I assure you. Again, if I could keep this thread clean, and opinion free, that would be marvelous. Ideally, all it would have are links and facts relating to Double Eagles.

 

So ya think the renegades were rounded up? So sad that they never kept in contact. You guys really clicked...........

 

Don't want to mislead anyone -- I was gone before the big boat ever hit the water. It was especially strange, as I moved to Jacksonville in 1988, and there was a persistent rumor that a decoy boat operated out of Charleston, but that the real boat (virtually identical in every respect) operated out of Jacksonville. I believe this rumor remains unconfirmed to this day.