What's the best place to buy shipwreck coins ? Which ones are the nicest ones to collect ? 1 1

[ElCubano]

Hello

What's the best place to buy shipwreck coins ? Which ones are the nicest ones to collect ?

Thank you

[Sandon]

    Welcome to the NGC chat board. 

    Please note that the Coin Marketplace forum is for solicitations to sell or buy specific coins. Your inquiry would likely receive better attention if posted on the "Newbie Coin Collecting Questions" forum or the "U.S., World, and Ancient Coins" forum. Additionally, it would be helpful if you could make it clear whether there are any specific types of "shipwreck coins" you are thinking of collecting, such as coins salvaged from seventeenth century Spanish galleons or U.S. coins from mid-nineteenth century wrecks such as the S.S. Central America.  It also depends upon your budget.

   In my own opinion, non-gold coins salvaged from undersea wrecks are generally undesirable and overpriced. They are almost always corroded and/or otherwise damaged from the effects of exposure to seawater, shifting sands, and surrounding decaying substances and sea life.  Most would be of little value but for their provenance, which is of little interest to collectors like me, who prefer coins in the best condition they can afford.  The prices many of them command are solely due to hype by mass marketers who sell them to people who know little about coins or the low value of equivalent impaired or worn pieces that don't come from shipwrecks. The only ones worthwhile to me would be pieces that are very rare by date and mint or variety and some exceptional pieces such as the dimes from the safe on the S.S. Central America that escaped the ravages of the ocean floor, and I wouldn't pay a premium for their provenance either. If you're still adamant about buying them, buy them from reputable coin dealers in certified holders from reputable grading services such as NGC, PCGS, or ANACS with the provenance (name of the ship) stated on the holder. Beware of fake pieces in fake grading service holders or with fake documentation. Such pieces are now mass produced in Asia. Avoid purchasing from random sellers on sites such as ebay.

   Gold coins from shallow water shipwrecks tend to have rough, grainy surfaces due to the action of shifting sands and aren't really desirable either.  However, many of those from deeper water wrecks or those where the coins remained tightly packed together such as the S.S. Central America, S.S. Brother Jonathan or S.S. Republic are numerically graded in lightly circulated all the way up to gem uncirculated but usually cost thousands to tens of thousands of dollars due to their gold content--a twenty-dollar gold piece presently contains about $1,900 just in gold--and the demand for them from serious collectors, especially in higher grades.

   To find a likely reputable dealer, check the NGC dealer directory under the "Resources" tab on the NGC home page, www.ngccoin.com ("Locate Dealers") or similar directories of the Professional Numismatists Guild (pngdealers.org) or the American Numismatic Association (money.org).  More valuable shipwreck pieces also appear at sales by major numismatic auction houses such as (in alphabetical order) Goldberg (goldbergcoins.com), Great Collections (greatcollections.com), Heritage (ha.com), and Stacks Bowers (stacksbowers.com).

   

   

[ElCubano]

Wow, thank you, I can tell you are very knowledgeable, 

[Fenntucky Mike]

Sedwick's specializes in shipwreck coins.

https://auction.sedwickcoins.com/auctionlist.aspx?dv=2 

You can find shipwreck coins on all auction platforms as they don't seem to be particularly hard to find in general. I don't collect shipwreck coins but my recommendation would be to do a lot of research on these and narrow your focus down as much as possible, maybe to a specific type of coin, country, ship, metal, design, etc..

My one "shipwreck" item is from the SS Gairsoppa, some of the recovered silver was melted down and turned into modern "collectable" bullion. 

[ElCubano]

Thank you Mike