1856-S $20 Liberty Head Double Eagle, 17M PCGS AU58 (CAC) Ex. SS Central America

It is with pleasure that we at AUCM offer a rarity from the tragic shipwreck of the SS Central America: 1856-S $20 Liberty, variety 17M, graded PCGS "Gold Foil" AU58. Variety 17M is No Serif, Full A. Gold specialist Doug Winter writes on the popularity of collecting Type 1 Liberty head double eagles (1850-1866): "If I had to pick a single event as the impetus for the surge in interest for these coins, I would go with the discovery of the SS Central America shipwreck. I vividly remember the massive amount of interest these coins generated among collectors and non-collectors alike." Among the ruins of the SS Central America were found 1,085 pieces of this issue.

Those coins began to slowly enter the collector market in 2000, and by 2001-2002 thousands of such coins were available to the numismatic community. Coins from the Central America were well-preserved and expertly conserved before being graded by PCGS. Doug Winter writes, "The marketing for this group of double eagles ... was masterful and hundreds of serious collectors were created. The prevailing thought was that if someone entered the market as an investor and bought a nice ... double eagle from the shipwreck, by providing him with massive amounts of research and history it would be possible to create many new collectors whose interest would extend to other dates from the wreck (1855-S and 1856-S) and then onto various other issues." Before 2000, the supply of high-end Type One double eagles was very limited. "But, "writes Winter, "you had a perfect storm of increased supply coupled with increased demand not to mention a rise in gold prices and considerable mainstream interest in gold as an inflation hedge among hard money advocates."