- Title: USA: TREASURES OF CALIFORNIA GOLD RUSH GO TO AUCTION AT SOTHEBY'S
- Date: 31st October 1999
- Summary: NEW YORK, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (OCTOBER 29, 1999) (RTN) 1. SLV EXTERIOR SOTHEBY'S/SCU SIGN (2 SHOTS) 0.12 2. SLV GOLD ON DISPLAY/ CU PAN CONTAINING DUST/CU DUST/SLV DISPLAY OF GOLD (4 SHOTS) 0.30 3. CU GOLD COINS 0.35 4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) PAUL INHO SONG, DIRECTOR OF COINS AND MEDALS AT SOTHEBY'S SAYING "Not only is it American treasure versus Spanish treasure, which is about 95 percent of what has come to market recently. This is a unqiue opportunity, this is the first U.S. treasure wreck and the preponderance of treasure is gold, rather than silver because it really encapsulates all parts of the gold rush. Which means the gold dust and nuggets." 0.57 5. SCU DISPLAY OF GOLD/CU GOLD NUGGET / SCU DISPLAY (3 SHOTS) 1.10 6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) SONG SAYING "There is much speculation on that (value), they believe the entire treasure and we only have a portion of it, is worth in excess of one hundred million dollars by today's value. At the time in 1857, we were in the gold currency, today we are not. These are really valuable for historic and aesthetic value. Just the rareity and how they really capture the entire essence of the California gold rush in the mid 19th century, American expansionism at the time." 1.43 7. SCU/CU OLD BARS ON DISPLAY (5 SHOTS) 2.03 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 15th November 1999 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: NEW YORK, UNITED STATES
- City:
- Country: USA
- Reuters ID: LVA22IOML8E991AWND74CCULCOJQ
- Story Text: Treasures of the California Gold Rush are due to go
under the hammer when Sotheby's auction items retrieved from
the wreck of a ship that sank off the South Carolina coast in
1857.
Ensconced on the ocean floor of the Atlantic since 1857
with no current to disturb it, the gold of the SS Central
America was unharmed even as the iron and wooden ship
deteriorated around it.
The gold bars, ingots and coins were being transported from
the West coast, where thousands of young men, known as the
forty-niners had rushed to Northern California to mine the
precious metal.
The gold was sought in every conceivable form - from specks
of panned dust to large nuggets shot-through quartz, dug out
of mountainsides.
The sale at Sotheby's auction house in New York will offer
a range of rare gold bars, ranging in weight from 4.95 ounces
to an immense bar weighing 663 ounces valued at over 150,000
U.S.dollars.
Forty-seven gold ingots and thirty pounds of gold dust and
nuggets ranging in size from grains of sand to a 20 ounce
nugget with inlaid chunks of quartz will also be offered.
Among the coins in the Gold Rush Treasure Sale of the SS
Central America are more than a dozen privately issued gold
coins, including seven Ten Dollar Gold Pieces.Some of the
coins are valued at more than 20,000 U.S.dollars each.
Before the sale in early December, the gold will be part of
a travelling exhibition around the United States.
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