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Message:: [QUOTE="johnmilton, post: 3746770, member: 101855"]I have never been a fan of most shipwreck coins. I think that many of them are massively over priced. A certificate of authenticity and a woodern "casket" sould not justify paying a huge premium for a damaged coin.  The only pieces that are any good are the coins that were in the middle of pile where the seawater could not get to them. The most common examples are the gold coins recovered from the SS Central America. [ATTACH=full]1004906[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=full]1004907[/ATTACH] Even those coins have their issues. When I was dealer another dealer consigned several of those coins to me to sell. When I looked at them with a strong glass, I saw that they were getting more than their share of copper spots, and that the they were getting worse. Sure enough a few years later I saw some of the coins come on the market. They looked terrible. I am not saying that all of these coins will go bad. The one I posed above has been in its holder for a little less than 20 years. After a coin has been stable for 10 years, I'd say that it is going to be okay. Of course, there was the infamous “supernova” $20 gold piece that had copper toning all over it. It was touted as something wonderful, and some bidders pushed the auction price up to over $300 k if memory serves. I thought that was insane. I would not have paid melt for that coin.[/QUOTE]