BG- 111 G25C 1856 California Fractional, Liberty Octagonal NGC MS65 R3

R3. 1856 Gold 25C Liberty Head Octagonal, Rarity-3.

• Period One - circulating issues between 1852 and 1856.
• Redbook Type: Small Liberty Head / Value & Date in Wreath.
• RedBook Collectors Sequence: RB-004
• Made by Antoine Louis Nouizillet, 1852-1854.

Obverse: 12 stars; small spike from top of coronet; 1 at star below point of bust. Point of coronet is between 5th & 6th stars. Same as BG-110.

Reverse: 1 - 4 DOLLAR 1856 in wreath. 12 berries on each branch with one at the top and an outer one at left of D and right of R in DOLLAR.

Historical Note: Several examples were recovered by divers from the shipwrecks of both the S.S. Winfield Scott and the S.S. Central America.

The S.S. Winfield Scott was operated by the Pacific Mail Steamship Company to carry passengers and cargo between San Francisco and Panama.  On December 1, 1853, she left San Francisco bound for Panama with about 400 passengers and $884,861.50 in treasure.  Two days out she was caught in a storm and ran aground 30 miles west of Santa Barbara.  The passengers and most of the treasure were rescued.  What remained were mainly items of small value abandoned by the passengers in their haste to evacuate the sinking ship.

In September 1857, the SS Central America was caught in a vicious hurricane and sent to her watery grave a mile and a half beneath the furious waves of the Atlantic ocean; with her went hopes, dreams and a vast fortune in gold. The recovery of the cargo some 130 years later required both high and low tech solutions, and brought to the surface what is without doubt the single richest and most important treasure in the annals of American sea salvage.