3609

UNITED STATES: AR trade dollar, 1874-CC, Good

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:125.00 - 175.00 USD
UNITED STATES: AR trade dollar, 1874-CC, Good
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[?]Live Online Auction Starts In 2025 Sep 21 @ 10:00 (UTC-07:00 : PDT/MST)
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UNITED STATES: AR trade dollar, 1874-CC, KM-108, from the wreck of the Pacific Mail Steamship Company ship SS Japan, salt water damage, Good. On February 20, 1865, six weeks before his assassination, President Abraham Lincoln approved a bill to establish the Pacific Mail Steam Ship Company as the conduit to formalize trade with China following the completion of the transcontinental "Pacific Railroad." The four ships commissioned for service between San Francisco, Yokohama and Hong Kong were the SS China, SS Great Republic, SS America, and the SS Japan. Constructed between 1866 to 1868, they were the largest, most impressive sidewheel steamships yet built.On November 18, 1874, the SS Japan departed San Francisco on a routine scheduled voyage to Hong Kong, stopping in Yokohama, with 425 Chinese Passengers eager to return home after years of labor in California, each person carrying an average of $300 value in gold coin. Also loaded aboard and stowed away in the ship's treasure tank were 168 boxes with $358,508 in newly minted 1874 trade dollar coins.Around midnight on December 17, 1874, fire broke out in the coal bulkhead located amidships, adjacent to the treasure tank. The fire spread quickly from the coal bulkhead, smoke and flames engulfing the wooden center structures of the SS Japan trapping many aboard. Some managed to jump into the dark violent waters. In about 45 minutes the SS Japan was totally engulfed in flames. When the morning of December 18 dawned, the SS Japan was gone with 151 crew and passengers saved in lifeboats and almost 400 Chinese emigrants lost in the fire, on the raging sea and within the sinking hulk of the great ship. The shocking news of the loss of the SS Japan initiated a search and rescue dispatch of two ships of the US Navy's Asiatic fleet from Hong Kong to the wreck site two days later. They found no survivors but recovered a few Chinese bodies among the burnt flotsam in the ship's debris field.In January 1875, Hong Kong underwriters dispatched a schooner and a steamer under the command of Captain Roberts. He searched the area for 6 months, and finally in July located the wreck of the SS Japan in under 128 feet of water. Salvage operations ceased in 1877 after about 300,000 coins were recovered leaving the remaining 58,000 unrecoverable and considered lost. In 2007, the first of a small number of blackened and salt water damaged coins began to enter the market in Hong Kong discovered by fishermen near the wreck site likely doing 'dragnet fishing' or bottom trawling.