During the Civil War years, gold was discovered in eastern Oregon and parts nearby. The gold ore was shipped overland to Portland and then by sea to San Francisco where the gold ore was converted into coins at the San Francisco Mint. On Sunday July 30, 1865, the SS Brother Jonathan left San Francisco's docks on a heading toward Portland's warves carrying over 240 passengers and crew, plus millions of dollars worth of newly minted gold bars and $20 Double Eagle gold coins stowed in its hold. Some of the gold was to be used for Indian Treaty payments. After 34 hours of sailing through stormy seas from San Francisco to Crescent City, Captain Samuel J. DeWolfe departed Crescent City's harbor under nearly clear blue skies and continued the journey toward Portland now only about a day away. Within 30 minutes of leaving Crescent City, the SS Brother Jonathan ran into a severe storm with thunderous waves cresting to 30 feet high. A couple of hours later, terrified passengers begged the Captain to return to the safety of the harbor at Crescent City. The Captain ordered the ship to turn around. Approximately 20 minutes after turning the ship around, the SS Brother Jonathan was again under blue skies, but the waves continued cresting at close to 30 feet. The wind, filling the sails, propelled the ship forward at breakneck speed into an uncharted reef (unchartered then - now known as Saint George Reef). . The impact sent the nine-story mast through the bottom of the ship and the ship began to break apart as it lay helplessly impaled upon the reef. Huge waves swept screaming passengers off the decks of the ship into the rough ocean. There were six lifeboats onboard the ship capable of carrying 250 passengers each. Technically, there were enough lifeboats to save all the passengers and crew. However, as each lifeboat was launched, huge waves would flip the small crafts tossing everyone into the sea. In the end, only one lifeboat with 19 people made it to shore. The rest of the passengers and crew perished. For the next few weeks, bodies would wash up on shore. Among those passengers who perished was William Logan, the recently appointed Superintendent of the U.S. Mint in The Dalles, Oregon. Logan was to oversee construction of a new mint. Many numismatic historians believe that his death is the reason the new mint was never completed. Had the SS Brother Jonathan completed its trip to Portland, perhaps gold coin collectors today would be as passionate about gold coins minted at The Dalles Mint as they are today regarding the Carson City Mint's gold pieces. That's the bad part - keep reading for the good part (the treasure part). On October 1, 1993, a company, founded by Don Knight, named Deep Sea Research located the wreck of the SS Brother Jonathan using a small mini-submarine, but it would not be until August 30, 1996 that divers would locate the first gold coins. 564 gold $20 double eagles were recovered that first day. In all, a total of 1,207 coins were recovered in 1996 and 1997. Nearly all the coins were struck at the San Francisco mint. Many of the coins discovered were still wrapped in oil paper, twenty-five coins in a stack. Others found unwrapped were encrusted by large barnacles. The oil-paper wrapping and marine encrustations protected the coins and, likely is the main reason so many coins were recovered in mint state condition. Finding treasure is presumed tp be a happy occasion with everyone getting rich. But in reality, it usually winds up with a lot of claimants clamoring for a piece of the pie. In the case of the SS Brother Jonathan, the descendants of passengers, shippers and the State of California all got greedy and sued claiming the right to a share of the treasure. Ironically, the man who started the entire venture, Don Knight, was to get into a fight with others from Deep Sea Research and he eventually left the venture before any gold was recovered. In 1999, the State of California won a settlement for 200 of the $20 gold double eagles estimated, back then, at $5,000 per coin or $1 million dollars. Under the settlement, California was forced to agree not to sell the coins on the open market for at least 15 years. Here's an excerpt from an Austin Coins brochure describing the 1865-S $20 gold pieces they previously purchased from the salvage company and subsequentially sold: "Going into the salvage company's sale we knew there were a variety of Civil War Era gold coins found in this shipwreck. Most coins were very strong and overpriced for their low quality. But much to our amazement, the second session contained the highest quality coins at prices far less than we ever imagined and featured rare, $20 Liberty gold pieces dated 1865 bearing an "S" mint mark preserved in pristine, Brilliant Uncirculated, mint condition- despite being shipwrecked on the ocean floor for over 131 years! " Here's a photo of an 1865-S Double Eagle that was salvaged from the SS Brother Jonathon courtesy of Austin Coins. http://www.austincoins.com/shipwreck2.htm What this means to you. The earliest you and other gold coin collectors can hope to purchase any of these elusive 1864-S or '65-S gold Double Eagles is in 2014 (4 years and 1 month away). With California's current financial woes, I expect California will probably offer the coins for sale, or at auction, as early as possible in 2014. Want one? Now's the time to begin preparing to acquire it. Thought you'd like to know... Clinker
Rumour has it that some coins were recovered by salvors as early as the 1930's but that it was kept a secret. Sometime if you ever have a chance it is a lovely drive to drive from the Golden Gate Bridge and Marin Headlands up the coast on Hwy 1 and see some of the most remarkable scenery I have ever seen anywhere. Several years ago while at the Marin Headlands Park, I looked down and you can see a shipwreck down there right on the rocks from the early 20th century. But the best thing I have ever seen there, a bit up the coast, was a blue whale breeching the water about 1/4 mile off of the coast.
You can buy those coins now, I'm not sure what you mean when you say the earliest I can buy one is 2014? Legend has a MS64 65-S up for sale right here: http://www.legendcoin.com/cgi-bin/inventory/itemlist.pl?category=Gold:Double Eagles Maybe I misread this wrong (3x?)
hi Clinker: I'm a reporter for the AP looking for coin collectors in the Fort Myers area. could you e-mail me at mirvine@ap.org? I have a question for you. thanks much! Martha Irvine AP National Writer Chicago
