1857-S Double Eagle SS Central America - 1857-S $20.00 SS Central America, 20D Bold 7, Faint S, PCGS AU58, CAC. In its population report, as of March 2014, CAC shows 9 1857-S, Bold 7, Faint S double eagles confirmed at the near-Uncirculated AU58 grade level. Less than 7% of all PCGS and NGC graded 1857-S double eagles have been given CAC stickers.

This beautiful, near Mint State 1857-S double eagle shipwreck survivor comes from the ill-fated SS Central America. PCGS reserved the gold sticker for coins from this hoard. The coin, which is known as a Bold 7, Faint S variety, has an S mintmark with no right serif. The glowing surfaces of this piece show original mint luster and few abrasion marks, none so serious as to require individual description. The strike is absolutely hammered with full details on Libertys hair, the centers of the obverse stars, and the design element of the reverse especially the eagle. The light and dark yellow-gold colors show the coins originality. The CAC sticker indicates that the coin is a premium quality piece that fully merits the grade assigned.

Until the discovery of the SS Central America, 1850s double eagles in mint condition were virtually unavailable. The ship, originally called the SS George Law, was a United States mail steamship. In 1857 it sank off the coast of the Carolinas because of a huge hurricane. It was a three-mast, side-wheel steamship that traveled between Panama and New York. The journey took approximately 21 days. In the five years prior to its sinking, it has been estimated that the Central America carried about $150 million worth of gold or one-third of all of the gold mined in California. The ship was 272 feet long and had 578 passengers and crew on board. It also had on board over 35,000 pieces of mail, gold bars, nuggets, dust, and 5,200 San Francisco gold coins from the West, of which the present coin is one.

In 1985, the Columbus-America Discovery Group raised ten million dollars and began to search for the wreck. They found it at a depth of 8,500 feet off the coast of South Carolina. It is estimated that the total coins, ingots, and gold bars were worth more than one hundred million dollars.

There are two different historical views of the cause of the shipwreck. Cedric Ridgely-Nevitt in 1950 said, The foundering of the Central America can best be laid to the inherent structural weakness of a wooden ship so twisted and torn by wind and sea that some part of the water-tight shell gave way. This view is in contrast to that of Erik Heyl, who wrote in 1953, The chief engineer of the CENTRAL AMERICA turned out to be a thoroughgoing coward. He jumped into the last lifeboat as it was still loading, having only half-a-dozen people in it, and by brandishing a huge knife prevented others from leaving the steamer and getting into the boat.the wreck of the CENTRAL AMERICA is due solely to the cowardice of the chief engineer; when he saw water leaking into the engine and boiler rooms, he just quit cold. Presumably if the chief engineer had kept the engine running, the Captain would have been able to keep the ship afloat. The loss of the Central America triggered the Panic of 1857, which was actually caused by bank instability and generally poor economic conditions.