A collection 5 years in the making - FINISHED! SS Central America

This little collection of newspapers took me five years to complete. Though not worth too much, they are very hard to find. The historical significance of these three newspapers is that they represent the most detailed, most dramatic, and most-illustrated contemporary account of the SS Central America outside of official reports. The significance of the SS Central America is that it is one of the most significant (value-wise) numismatic finds in history. If you read any articles, books, etc. on the SS Central America, chances are that some of the illustrations used came from these three periodicals.


In 1857, a ship called the SS Central America laden with hundreds of passengers and millions of dollars in gold from California departed Panama during the Gold Rush days. A few days into the voyage, the ship was caught in a massive hurricane and foundered in the Atlantic, taking hundreds of lives and the treasure on board. The massive loss in capital is said to be one of the major contributors to the Panic of 1857.


Well over a century later, the wreck was found. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of ingots and newly-minted gold coins from California were discovered scattered on the seabed. After an extensive excavation, these coins were conserved and sold onto the market amid much fanfare.

(Now all I need is a nice 1857 S $20 from the shipwreck. )

 

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So tell us how you came about/found the newspapers. And what got you started on the collection?

 

I saw one on eBay (the Oct 3 issue), but it got lost in the mail. That started the ball rolling. At that time, I got hooked into trying to find that issue. After doing some more research, I found that there were two other issues (Oct 10 and 17), so it became my mission to get the whole trilogy. None of my sources had it in stock (and would cost $200 if they did), so I had to resort to eBay. To make my life easy, I set up a search on eBay that notifies me whenever a "Frank Leslie 1857" gets listed. Every few weeks, one would get listed, but it was one of the other 49 weekly issues. About twice a year, a relevant issue would be listed, but they would be in a bound volume for more than I could afford ($250-400). So I waited for singles. Two (Oct 3 and 17) popped up as BINs two years apart, and a couple months ago I noticed the Oct 10 issue in a large lot of a half dozen issues, so I bid to win. Turns out I now have a duplicate of the Oct 17 issue as that was in the lot as well.

 

Interesting collection focus. Now you really must get a coin from the wreck.

 

That is an interesting collection. I agree; you need a shipwreck coin now!

 

Great backstory for when you find the right coin!

 

SS Central America 1857 S $20 is on the want list. I will probably wait until Odyssey Marine brings more coins to the surface and saturates the market a little.

 

Very cool story! The fun is in the quest.

 

Very cool. I've had strong interest in the coins from the wreck, some day I'll pull the trigger on one.

 

Awesome history!

 

Soon...