SS Republic

The final voyage

Built at Baltimore in 1853 as the steamer Tennessee, the ship saw service under both Union and Confederate control during the Civil War before returning to commercial life as the Republic. She departed New York on 18 October 1865 bound for New Orleans with passengers, commercial goods, and an estimated $400,000 in gold and silver specie (face value) intended to help re-monetize the postwar Southern economy [1](https://doczz.net/doc/264819/odyssey-papers-6---odyssey-marine-exploration). Caught in a hurricane, she foundered and sank on 25 October 1865 roughly 100 miles off the Georgia coast; her passengers and crew escaped the sinking ship [2](https://www.shipwreck.net/ss-republic).

Odyssey Marine Exploration located the wreck in 2003 in about 500 metres (roughly 1,700 feet) of water. Between 2003 and 2005 an archaeological excavation using the ROV Zeus recovered 51,404 coins and 14,414 other artifacts over 262 dives, one of the largest and most extensively documented deep-water shipwreck excavations undertaken to that date [1](https://doczz.net/doc/264819/odyssey-papers-6---odyssey-marine-exploration).

What was aboard

Historical records cited by the excavating company describe an estimated $400,000 face-value specie shipment; the excavation itself recovered 51,404 individual coins, which is documented by Odyssey Marine's own published archaeological reports rather than a surviving 1865 cargo manifest.

$20 Liberty double eagles: Gold coin from the Philadelphia, New Orleans, and San Francisco mints, among the coin types recovered.

Seated Liberty half dollars: Including 1861-O half dollars later analyzed by die variety to distinguish issues struck under the U.S., Louisiana, and Confederate authorities that successively controlled the New Orleans Mint that year.

Commercial cargo: A large and diverse assemblage of mid-19th-century trade goods and personal effects, documented alongside the coin recovery.

How to collect

Confirm NGC/NCS conservation and grading: Genuine Republic coins were conserved by Numismatic Conservation Services and graded by NGC as part of the official recovery program; ask for that documented chain.

Match mint and date to the documented range: Recovered coins date from the late 1830s to 1865 and were struck at Philadelphia, New Orleans, and San Francisco; anything outside that range or mintage requires independent verification.

Understand the specie figure is an estimate: The commonly cited $400,000 figure is a historical estimate of face value, not a count that matches the 51,404 coins recovered coin-for-coin.

Buy only through documented retail or auction chains: Odyssey's recovery program distributed material through established numismatic dealers and its own collector programs; unclear private-sale histories warrant caution.