1865-S $20 Liberty Head Double Eagle NGC MS63 Ex. SS Brother Jonathan - Civil War Era Gold!

Here's a stunning survivor of the tragic wreck of the Brother Jonathan. NGC has graded 111 as MS63 with 150 finer.

Gold specialist Doug Winter writes, "A number of the S.S. Brother Jonathan ... coins have very clean surfaces with almost no marks; these must have been pristine when they were loaded on the ship. ... The luster is frosty ... On the shipwreck coins, the quality and appearance of the luster varies. Some have exceptional frosty luster and show little evidence of having been on the ocean floor for over a century. ... A small number have superb color and are ... among the most attractive ... gold coins ... struck prior to the end of the Civil War." As you can see from the photos of the example offered by AUCM, this is among those with "superb color" that are "among the most attractive" gold double eagles.

The officers and crew of the SS Brother Jonathan. Photo: coinweek.com.

It was in Williamsburg, New York (currently a neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY) that Perrine, Patterson & Stack constructed the Brother Jonathan for Edward Mills. At the final cost of $190,000 she was launched on November 2, 1850. Built with live oak, locust, cedar, and iron braces, the dimensions of Brother Jonathan were approximately 221 feet long, thirty-six feet wide, and fourteen feet deep. She had a tonnage of 1,181 and passenger capacity of 350.

Originally, the ship had two decks crafted of white oak flooring and two masts: a square-rigged foremast and a schooner-rigged mainmast. Steering and navigation equipment were found between the funnel and foremast, while the boilers were forward of amidships. Paddlewheels on both sides were thirty-three feet in diameter and powered by a walking beam engine. Morgan Iron Works fitted the engine room, while the engine itself was recovered from the wreckage of the Atlantic, which sank in 1846 after hitting a powerful storm in Long Island Sound. Early 1851 saw Brother Jonathan begin its route from New York to Chargres in Panama.