1During the California Gold Rush of the 1850s, miners would leave the Sierra foothills to go to San Francisco to have their gold minted into $20 gold coins. 2Because the railroad would not be completed for nearly 20 years, the gold was sent by ship from San Francisco to Panama, then overland to the Atlantic coast and transferred to ships that continued to New York City. 3In 1857, one ship laden with gold coins never made it to its destination.
4The SS Central America was off the coast of the Carolinas when a storm hit. 5The storm pounded the ship for three days. 6It tossed the ship about on waves 20 feet high or higher. 7On Saturday, September 12, 1857, the ship sank with its fantastic treasure of gold coins and gold bars still aboard.
8In 1987, 130 years after the ship sank, the wreck of the SS Central America was located. 9Using state-of-the-art electronic equipment, sonar, and an undersea robot. 10Each coin and artifact was carefully and individually recovered from the bottom of the ocean.
11Amazingly, the coins looked just as they had when they were minted 130 years before. 12Now, each coin is a gold time capsule that preserves memories of the excitement and dangers of the Gold Rush.