TREASURE TALK WITH BOB EVANS, EPISODE 4.2

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V28 2025 INDEX E-SYLUM ARCHIVE

The E-Sylum: Volume 28, Number 19, 2025, Article 20

In January, our good friend Bob Evans began publishing a series of blog articles on the Finest Known website detailing his experience as co-discoverer and curator of the treasures recovered from the wreck of the S.S. Central America. Subject of the book "Ship of Gold", many exhibits, countless interviews and articles, books and auction catalogs feature the legendary haul of gold coins, bars, nuggets, gold dust and more from the 1857 shipwreck. Here's another excerpt - see the complete article online. -Editor

We were granted a 90% salvage award, but it dragged on, for a few more years. They appealed. It was upheld on appeal. Finally, re-opening an unresolved matter, we appealed, contending that two of the insurance entities had not proven they were connected with this treasure in any way. So, those entities were removed from the list of claimant underwriters, and the Underwriters percentage was reduced slightly, and ours increased reciprocally. This is how we arrive at the final figures often reported in the press, 92.4% for us, or "seven and a half percent" for the Underwriters.

During the 90s I arranged to transport to my lab, and curate, a few hundred coins and a few dozen bars. But there were over 7,000 gold coins and more than 500 gold ingots. Ever since our discovery, I had subscribed to various numismatic publications. So, I read the frustrations that were expressed. Everyone wanted to know everything about the treasure. Me too. These matters could not be fully resolved until the legal issues were all settled. We needed to establish who owned what portion of the pie before we could see if it was apple or cherry or rhubarb.

Thompson could not reach an agreement with the Underwriters for a unified marketing and monetization. For our part, during the 90s we spent a lot of resources examining grandiose marketing schemes with top consultants, people who had managed Olympic Games, displayed the Hope Diamond, and built grand opera sets. We cooperated with author Gary Kinder who wrote a non-fiction bestseller about the project, Ship of Gold – in the Deep, Blue Sea. We also had two somewhat small-splash exhibits locally in Columbus, at the Art Museum and at the Columbus Zoo, highlighting our photography and technology, and non-gold artifacts. We did not feature much gold at all. We had an arrangement of gold dust and nuggets in one case, no bars or coins.

Judge Kellam passed away in 1996, and US Federal District Judge J. Calvitt Clarke inherited the case. Because the Underwriters and Tommy continued to disagree about marketing, he ordered a "Division in Kind." The treasure was to be split physically, with each party receiving title and ownership to its own portion.

The subject is longer than I wish to address here. I will eventually write a whole chapter for the math nerds. But we agreed that I would divide the treasure into 90 parts. The Underwriters were to receive seven of the 90 parts. The idea was that the Underwriters would select first, then us, then them, then us, etc., alternating until they had their 7/90 of the treasure.

To provide expertise for the Underwriters, the Court had previously appointed Fred Holabird to examine the treasure and advise them. At our first meeting at Brinks in 1997, we danced around each other with various declarative statements for about ten minutes. Fred figured out that I was real (who knows what their attorneys had told him,) and that I had properly handled and catalogued everything. I found out that we were fellow geologists, and he was just as genuinely interested in what we had to look at as I was. Although working for different "sides," we quickly became friends, cooperative partners in an examination that took a total of 22 days (not consecutive.) We both just wanted to find out more of the truth about the wonderful treasure. It obviously had stories to tell. Those days were great, and we thrilled together at each newly discovered detail.

Fred did a thorough, meticulous job with his examinations, and the inventory he prepared became the standard for the rest of the legal case.

So, on June 17, 1998, we assembled a courtroom of sorts, at Brinks, in their 25-yard indoor gun range. It was a cul de sac enclosure within the Brinks building. Brinks had built a new facility, really more like a fortress, in the Hampton Roads city of Chesapeake, VA. The gun range they had constructed was very secure, just one way in and out.

Prior to this, we had never taken the entire treasure out of the Brinks interior vault at one time. Thompson and our attorneys were present, the other side likewise represented, with an actual executive from the Underwriters (first time I had met one,) their attorneys of course, and their experts, including Fred Holabird. A Magistrate was present to preside for the Court.

The division went off without a hitch. The opposition and tension were all gone. It was a little like the conclusion of a playoff hockey series, with all the players lining up and shaking hands. I was disappointed when the Underwriters selected the parcel with all the native gold, the rocks. That left a little hollow in my soul. But I was happy that we were now unburdened of our reluctant "partner" in the treasure. Now they could do what they wanted with theirs, and we could do what we wanted with ours.

At long last, maybe we could finally figure out exactly what we had found. A full curatorial examination, detailed cataloguing, and conservation awaited. After the Division in Kind, Tommy Thompson abandoned the grandiose marketing plans that we had conceived, and he settled on what was probably a more practical approach. In early rounds of market research, and in one of the deals he made (with Bruce McNall,) Tommy had brought us in contact with Larry and Ira Goldberg.

The Goldbergs were my hosts during my trip to be on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. That original deal with McNall had gone sour, in ways that are beyond my scope here. But after we split the treasure with the Underwriters, our attorney, Rick Robol, got back in touch with the Goldbergs.

On the golf course one day shortly thereafter, Larry Goldberg mentioned that the treasure was "available" to Dwight Manley. Manley jumped at the idea of marketing the SSCA treasure. He was 32, a young, energetic dealmaker, and he was a huge California history fan and patron. Here was the chance to be involved with the greatest California Gold Rush treasure that would ever be found, the greatest lost treasure in United States history. He had to have it.

We all met in the morning in the hotel lobby, before we proceeded over to Brinks. I kept silent, watched, and listened until I was needed. We weren't too far into the exchange of opening pleasantries, when Manley asked, "So, getting down to business, these coins… are they all 1857-S double eagles?"

Tommy looked blank, just poker faced. I was actually surprised at how unfamiliar he was with the details of the treasure he had been contesting in court for almost a decade.

I jumped in, "Well, they're not all 1857-S. There are significant numbers of 1856-S, 1855-S, as well as other mints, denominations, pioneer gold…"

Dwight sat up and gestured at me, as he turned to Larry, "This guy. He's the one who knows about the treasure." Larry nodded.

Shortly after that we drove to Brinks for the first of a few examinations that I hosted with Dwight and assorted potential marketing partners. Dwight put the pieces of a business, California Gold Market Group, together over the next year and a half. I have heard him say it was the most difficult deal he ever arranged. He needed to find the right partners. It was a huge deal, tens of millions or more. There was some legal baggage.

Christie's was suing Tommy's company for not following through with a signed contract that Thompson contended was just a "set of guidelines." I believe the auction held at Christie's on December 14, 2000, was at least partly to make this problem go away. Dwight turned it into a win-win for everyone. He got the deal done. There was a spectacular auction at Christie's, with the "Créme de la créme" of the treasure, the finest known example of every date, denomination, mint, and variety of every coin recovered until that time, as well as a splendid selection of gold bars.