Heritage Auctions will offer a 107.7 ounce Kellogg & Humbert gold ingot in its June 8-11 Long Beach Expo sale.
The lot was recovered from the wreck of the SS Central America, which was lost in a storm off the coast of South Carolina in September 1857.
The ingot is stamped Kellogg & Humbert, a well-known firm of assayers
It was carrying 14,000 kg of gold, worth an estimated $292m today.
In fact, the value was such that its loss led directly to a financial crisis later that year (the Panic of 1858).
In 1988 the wreck was found by a salvage team, which then spent years recovering the gold.
Following a drawn-out legal battle, the salvage team was permitted to keep all of it in 1996.
This bar is among the largest ingots the ship was carrying.
It’s now offered with an opening bid of $130,000.
An MS61-graded 1893-S silver Morgan dollar will feature with an estimate in excess of $80,000.
The lot was one of only 100,000 minted in San Francisco, before the disastrous impact of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act halted production.
Despite its low rate of issue, few collectors kept hold of them at the time and high quality specimens are now extremely rare.
Heritage explains: “None of these prominent coin dealers described the 1893-S as rare, and the modest premiums they brought suggests they were not widely sought-after by collectors.
“It seems the elusive nature of the 1893-S was not recognized in the late 19th or early 20th century.”
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