RWB

Much manual polishing was done using "emery sticks" which were little rods of soft wood with a crushed end. The stick end was dampened, dipped in a little abrasive and gently rubbed on small parts of a die. This was commonly done to "surface dress" or refinish part of a die face to remove clash marks or other damage. A lot of Peace dollars show fine scratches created by improper use of an emery stick and either contaminated abrasive or grit that was too coarse. (Peace dollars from SF and D usually have more of this damage than P Mint coins.)

The US Mint used different materials in different eras. The most common was emery abrasive in various grades (fineness) depending on the purpose. Calcium carbonate (CaCO3) - pure lime - was used at Carson and San Francisco...it was cheap, readily available and did not require careful filtering before use. Proof dies were given their final polish using finly ground and filtered polishing rouge (iron oxide, i.e., rust). By the 1930s cerium oxide was entering general use along side zirconia paste, later diamantic pastes were used. Cerium oxide is the most frequently encountered today. [One way to make excellent polishing rouge is to grind common iron rust very fine, then sift through a series of sieves down to about 800/inch. Heat it and regrind the 800 powder, then sprinkle on water. Skim off whatever floats, and repeat until all the oxide has been treated. The oxide that floats will, when dried, give a uniformly excellent polish with no scratches or sleeks from coarse particles.]

Is that the famous night club in Miami or Havana or Colorado Springs ?

Do enough members write German to make that practical? Yes, it has strayed..... If we could download the full 63 pages, that extra material could be removed and a concise version made available to interested parties -- with, of course, the NGC credit line on the entire product.

Nice half dollar -- looks a lot better than "Fine" to me --maybe Unc 64?

Not yet.....but as deterioration continues, such moronic oxen are likely to evolve.

Lavere Redfield was a somewhat screwed-up hoarder of silver dollars, among other things. There was nothing special about the coins, and bags of some of the same still exist in private holdings.

As many as a 2nd rate linebacker gets touches on a QB....?

11:59:59 is very close to AM, too.

If the ship had hit bottom upright, the chances were very good that anything in the mail vault would have remained inside the wreck. I checked my available Ex/Im records and do not find anything of the magnitude claimed in popular articles. The diver's comments imply that proper salvage protocols were ignored, and the first group of divers merely ripped through everything they could hoping to find gold. It also seems that what they found was largely junk.

1 DE = 1.075 T oz. 250 coins (1 bag) = 268.75 Troy ounces or 22.4 pounds (Troy or Avdp.). 5 tons = about 446 bags. 446 bags x 5,000 per bag = $2,230,000. This quote from a diver is especially troublesome: "Unfortunately, the salvors had broken up the ship very badly and we were all disappointed in the structural integrity of the ship."

The value is it's silver content....about 98-cents.

This 2005 article might shed some light on the current RMS Republic situation. [ From: https://shipwreck.blogs.com/shipwrecks_historical_tim/2005/07/rms_republic_sa.html Copyrighted © by Nautical Research Group, Inc. Creative commons use. ] July 24, 2005 RMS Republic - Sad Times for Older Sister of Titanic I noticed in recent days the news about the plight of Titanic's older White Star Line sister named Republic. The Republic sank on January 24th, 1909 when she collided in a dense fog with an immigrant ship named SS Florida. The approximate location of her sinking is about 50 miles south of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts. The Republic was reportedly carrying a fortune of 5 tons of newly minted American Gold Eagle coins valued at $3 million in 1909, 15 tons of gold bars, a Navy payroll with estimated current value around $70 million and several tons of silver, as well as passengers' jewelry. Additionally, it was reported to have on board JP Morgan's rare library of documents and books. She was discovered in 1981 by Martin Bayerle and salvaged throughout the mid-1980's. While I was diving the Andrea Doria through the 1980's, I could look off to the horizon and see about 5 miles away all the machinery of the rigs that were used to split open the Republic like a ripe watermelon. In all their destruction of this once-beautiful vessel, not one part of this vast fortune was found. Eventually, the salvors lost money and abandoned their claim to the ship. Auctions were held for the recovered artifacts from the Republic; however, there were very few buyers for these items. Literally boxes of artifacts were sold at a cheap rate and then the ship seemed to disappear for the past 15 years. In the mid-1990's, many of us that dove the Andrea Doria every year would then come over and dive Republic once. Unfortunately, the salvors had broken up the ship very badly and we were all disappointed in the structural integrity of the ship. Now Mr. Bayerle has, once again, secured salvage rights to the Republic. Since she lies in the shipping lanes into and out of New York, the Coast Guard has a mandatory 180 day notice to mariners period that must be given before diving can commence. With the weather window to dive the Republic all but closed, the operations will not begin until 2006. It will be certainly interesting to see if Mr. Bayerle's efforts will pay off or whether he will only succeed in desecrating the wreck site a second time. July 24, 2005 in Ocean Liner, Titanic | Permalink See also this site: http://www.rms-republic.com/story_rumor.html

From the New York Tribune, January 25, 1909, page 2: When Captain Ransom saw that the Republic could be towed the captain and crew of the latter were placed aboard again. The Baltic headed for New York about noon. Some delay was caused in the departure of the Baltic from the side of the Republic by the drifting of the latter during the night. Influenced by the current of the Gulf Stream and carried along by a light wind, the half sunken boat had traveled a distance of some sixteen miles. The Republic Goes Down. After the departure of the Ba!tlc the large revenue cutters Gresham and Seneca, which had arrived at the scene in the mean time, affixed hawsers to the Republic and started on a long tow to New York. The steamer dragged heavily and the speed was very slow. About eighty miles had been completed when the Republic began to settle, and finally she went down. [Crew and Captain had been transferred to the Gresham before Republic sank.]

NGC would know. Why not ask them? Nice looking tokens.

The Republic sailed on the 22nd with mail and cargo closing at 12:30pm. The Russian loan closed on the 22nd and the US portion was not identified on that date. A large sum of gold could not have been prepared and loaded in that time frame. Further, gold shipments were normally in bars of which the NYAO was the prime source and Philadelphia Mint bullion the secondary. I suspect a great deal of conjecture which is why this "huge treasure" sill sits off Nantucket on the continental shelf.

I have not found that mentioned in newspapers -- but there are a lot of papers. Banks would not have secured and released gold coin until after a loan had been approved.

The "Russian Loan" of $290 million did not close until Jan 22.

Normal packaging of gold coins for export was to place 7 bags separated by sawdust packing into a small keg. These were secured in a safe location on the ship. Some reports for other exports state the kegs were in a vault 2 levels below, and directly under the Captain’s quarters, with access only through that suite. The Republic sailed from Baltimore on January 5 for New York, and from New York City on Friday January 22, 1909 at 3pm (mail and cargo closed at 12:30pm) bound for Gibraltar and Genoa. It was struck amidship by the steamer Florida the evening of January 23 off Nantucket, and sank on the 24th. Here are the deliveries of double eagles at the Philadelphia Mint for January 1909. Any 1909-date coins had to move from Philadelphia Mint Cashier to the New York Assay Office, then to a packing facility and finally to the docked ship. This might have consumed 4 or 5 days. As shown by the Coiner's notebook excerpt, total double eagle coinage for January was $1,930,400. However, from January 13 through 15 coinage was only $981,900 - far short of the "$3,000,000 1909 DE" claimed by some. Further, even if the delivery on Jan. 19 were included (unlikely given the Republic's sailing on the 22nd) the total would have been only $1,110,400 in 1909-date double eagles. Thus, if the ship carried this $3 million in DE, the coins had to be all or 2/3rds earlier dates.

Source: NGC

Offer to buy the coin with a certification guarantee -- refund of price if it comes back fake.

Do ya' mean "commies?"

If you were truly a "fish out of water" you would have been an "entree" or at least a fish stick.... Now please mind your manners, many of us appreciate a bit of curmudgeonly chat.

Could merit a "cruel and unusual punishment" reprieve....kind of like having to watch the "Coin Channel" 24/7.

However -- it is a profile.... OK, not much consolation, but think positive.