1843 $5 Liberty Head Half Eagle NGC MS61 Ex.SS New York

Here’s a rare beauty to add to your collection. It would be perfect for the specialist in gold shipwreck coinage. Please take a look at the photos of this dramatic specimen. NGC has graded 40 as MS61 with 38 finer. 

The SS New York in 1836 when she was first constructed. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

The SS New York conducted a light cargo and passenger service between New Orleans and Galveston. It included military and post office contract passage until it submerged on September 7, 1846, during a hurricane. Seventeen of the 53 crew and passengers were lost at sea, along with "thirty to forty thousand dollars in gold, silver, and bank notes," according to reports from contemporary sources.

The ship was first detected in 1990 by an amateur diver and Louisiana oilfield worker. He trusted reports of snags from local shrimp fisherman to locate the wreck. After completion of an archeological survey conducted by the Minerals Management Service, and gaining the legal title to the wreckage, the original explorers returned to recover the ship’s coins in 2006.