"We had a great time with this exhibit. It's wonderful to get to talk in front of some of my favorite artifacts. Greg has collected pieces with great stories.

"By the way, it was more than two tons of gold."

We've updated the archived version of my Diary article to correct my misstatement of the amount of gold recovered from the shipwreck. The articles featuring the SS Central America story were my favorites from last week, as was the image of the "coin fossil" Bob described in his blog.

In very rare instances large pieces of blackish (oxygen-poor) rust spall off the coins and ingots, showing perfect reverse impressions of the gold surface... making a perfect duplication of the original die. A "coin fossil." Lustrous rust!

-Editor

"Thanks for acknowledging this remarkable photo. I had the piece with me when I spoke at Central States in Cincinnati a few years back, and David Heinrich was honing his coin photography skills, with a really nice setup at his house, where he graciously offered to get a good photo of it.

"Did he ever?!

"The piece is very dark, composed as it is of very dark iron minerals, but the mineral cast of the coin surface is so microscopically precise that the flow lines on the original die, struck into the coin surface, are transferred to the rust in such detail that it shows mint luster. David's lens and lighting captured it beautifully.

"Incredible. An amazing combination of art and nature."

I don't need an excuse to rerun that photo. It was a slam-dunk for Image of the Week last week. Maybe we should start an Image of the Year award. Wow. -Editor