1874-CC Trade Dollar. Sea Salvaged (NGC). SS Japan Shipwreck Label.

1874-CC Trade Dollar. Sea Salvaged (NGC). SS Japan Shipwreck Label. One of four trans-Pacific sidewheel steamers authorized by President Abraham Lincoln in February 1865, for use by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company, the SS Japan began her career in 1867. She spent her early years transporting mail, cargo and thousands of Chinese emigrants to work on the transcontinental railroad in the western United States. Beginning in 1873, the treasure tank on board the SS Japan and her sister ships were loaded with trade dollars struck at the San Francisco and Carson City mints, bound for use in the Far East in competition with the Mexican dollar. Departing San Francisco on November 14, 1874, on what was destined to be her final voyage, the SS Japan was outbound to Hong Kong via Yokohama, Japan when she was destroyed at sea during a catastrophic midnight fire on December 17, 1874. Going down with the ship were nearly 400 Chinese emigrants returning home after working in the United States and 168 boxes of U.S. trade dollars with a contemporary circulating value of $358,508. A three-year salvage operation followed, which recovered more than $300,000 in trade dollars. No other known recoveries were made from this treasure until circa 2007, when what appears to have been a commercial fishing net scraped away another small cache of trade dollars from the ocean floor at the site of the SS Japan's loss. These coins, like those recovered in 1875-1877, were blacked and otherwise damaged by the fire that destroyed the ship. This 1874-CC is from this 21st century find, and it is accompanied by "SS Japan Shipwreck (1874) Provenance Certificate" No. SSJ-1874-061 signed by Robert S. Wells, U.S. Navy captain and author of Voices From the Bottom Of The South China Sea, and Matthew Tavory of World Coins South FL, in collaboration with Hong Kong Colonial Coins and DeepSea Numismatics. (Total: 1 coin; 1 COA) Provenance: Ex SS Japan. PCGS# 7035. NGC ID: 2352. Click here for certification details from NGC.

Estimate:£0.75

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