I recently have become fascinated with shipwreck U.S. coins such as the S.S. Republic and Central America. I can't afford the gold coins but the silver ones are within my budget. My question is how much above book value of a certain coin is fair markup because it's a shipwreck coin?
There's 2 schools of thought at play here. 1 thinks the coins are cool and historic and worth more because of that. 2 thinks they are 'damaged' from the exposure to sea water and such, which is correct, so they usually think not much if any premium should be paid. I still think the coolness factor outweighs in this case though. Realistically it all comes down to the apparent grade of the coin and what you are comfortable or willing to pay.
I owned a SS republic half once, forget what I paid but it pretty much comes down to what the coin comes with (the nice box, dvd, authentication, etc) and what someone wants to pay for it. Heritage has more consistant results on SS republic coins than ebay.
I know that there is often a serious premium associated with buying these coins. Many are slabbed by major TPGs and are specifically designated as "shipwreck coins." The people who market these are pretty savvy. I've heard you can get some of the more common shipwreck coins for a much better price in the after market, after the intial media blitz and marketing campaigns die down a bit.
