Last weekend, gold ingots and coins valued at $40 million salvaged from the wreck of the SS Central America went on display for the first time at the 2018 Long Beach Coin, Currency, Stamp & Sports Collectible Expo. (The gold is for sale if you have the cash at your disposal.)

SS Central America was a 280-foot paddlewheel steamer operating between New York and Aspinwall during the California Gold Rush. The ship sank in a hurricane off South Carolina in 1857, killing 425 passengers and crew and sending 30,000 pounds of California gold coins, ingots and gold dust to the sea floor. The lost gold was valued at $2 million or roughly $300-400 million in current dollars. News of the loss shook the US financial markets and contributed to the Panic of 1857. 

The ship sank in over 7,000 feet of water 160 miles of the South Carolina coast, far to deep to salvage until engineer Tommy Thompson built an underwater robot called “Nemo” to pinpoint the location of the wreck. He succeeded in bringing up around 3 tons of gold. Unfortunately, his investors didn’t receive any of it. In 2012, Tommy Thompson disappeared rather than appear in court to answer charges. He was on the run until the law caught up with him in 2015.

In 2014, another group of investors hired Odyssey Marine Exploration to continue the salvage of the shipwreck.  Odyssey successfully recovered 3,100 gold coins, more than 10,000 silver coins, and 45 gold ingots, much of which was on display in Long Beach. 

And what of Tommy Thompson? In 2015, he had arranged a deal in which he would reveal the location of an estimated 500 missing gold coins in exchange for a reduced sentence. The coins are valued at between $2.5 million and $4 million. At some point, Thompson changed his mind however and has not revealed where the coins are hidden. A judge in Ohio charged him with contempt and sent him to jail until he changed his mind. So far Thompson hasn’t. The most recent hearing was in January where Thompson had nothing to say regarding the coins. So, he was sent back to jail, where he remains. 

Thanks to Irwin Bryan for contributing to this post.