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    RMS Republic gold coins


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    If I'm honest I'd never heard of this ship until the other day, when I happened to watch the first episode of a new series about it which has not long started on Sky. In the programme they claim that the ship contains $3,000,000,000 worth of 1909 gold eagle dollars. I'm curious to know why they believe that the cargo contained only newly minted 1909 double eagles as apposed to any other gold dollars that would seem to have been more readily available, also just how many 1909 gold eagles were minted, would there have been enough to provide 3 million dollars worth of coins for the ship and for general uses without these coins being super rare?

    1909 double eagle.jpg

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    Approx 2.8 million were struck in 1909, however the figure you give 3,000 million dollars was probably more than the GDP for USA that year so I suspect the sky research team were talking out of an orifice that wasn't their mouth, even $3 million was a vast amount of money in those days and would have weighed about a ton. I suspect if the ship was sunk in 1909 I suspect there would have been $20 of earlier years included in the consignment, certainly if there were all 1909 and $3 million then it would be 6-7% of the mintage of $20 for 1909.

    Paul

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    1 hour ago, paul wood said:

    Approx 2.8 million were struck in 1909, however the figure you give 3,000 million dollars was probably more than the GDP for USA that year so I suspect the sky research team were talking out of an orifice that wasn't their mouth, even $3 million was a vast amount of money in those days and would have weighed about a ton. I suspect if the ship was sunk in 1909 I suspect there would have been $20 of earlier years included in the consignment, certainly if there were all 1909 and $3 million then it would be 6-7% of the mintage of $20 for 1909.

    Paul

    Thanks Paul, I thought that might be the case. Another thing I've considered is why such the big secret and if it was such a big secret for whatever reason why not just use gold bullion, or indeed coins from another source such as the English gold sovereign? To me the programme seems to be another along the same lines as the curse of oak island, which will drag on for a few seasons without finding anything, because there's nothing to find, well nothing to find to the amounts that they claim is on there.

     

    According to wikipedia...........

     

    There are many rumours that the Republic was carrying gold and/or other valuables when she went down. One rumour is that she was carrying gold worth $250,000  in American gold coins to be used as payroll for the US Navy's Great White Fleet.Another theory that she was carrying money for the relief effort for the 1908 earthquake in Messina, Italy. A third theory, put forward by Captain Martin Bayerle, is that she was carrying $3,000,000 in gold coins as part of a loan to the Imperial Russian government. All of these values, of course, are in 1909 dollars when gold was $20 per ounce. Today, the coin values would bring the recovery to at least many hundreds of millions of dollars, and some experts[who?] have estimated that the recovery (with proper marketing of the recovered coins) could approach $5 billion or more, making the Republic salvage the largest treasure recovery of all time.

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    9 hours ago, Hugh said:

    Odyessy Marine (http://www.odysseymarine.com/ (here in Tampa) is the company which found RMS Republic.  I'm sure they'd be happy to answer questions. 

    Best,

    Hugh

    I'm thinking of the wrong Republic.  My Republic sank just after the US Civil War (1866, I think) with a load of gold coins and other valuables.  I should have paid attention to the date on the coins. 

     

    Sorry,

    Hugh

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    On 3/15/2016 at 03:16, Hugh said:

    I'm thinking of the wrong Republic.  My Republic sank just after the US Civil War (1866, I think) with a load of gold coins and other valuables.  I should have paid attention to the date on the coins. 

     

    Sorry,

    Hugh

     

     

    An interesting youtube film, well worth a watch, contains footage of some nice recovered coins. 

     

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    • 1 year later...

    Our RMS Republic (loss 1909) is an entirely different wreck than Odyssey's pissant SS Republic (reported $400,000 loss 1865).

    As to the RMS Republic's cargo, we have one confirmed shipment, an $800,000 US Navy coin monies shipment for the US Atlantic Battleship Fleet, then at Gibraltar.  This has been professionally (and conservatively) appraised at $200,000,000. We believe there is also a $3,000,000 shipment of newly minted double-eagles aboard as well, proceeds of a 30 day loan made to the Tsarist Russian State Bank.  That's seventy-five 144-pound boxes, and we believe the total consignment to the Russian State Bank, as a result of 4 1/2 % January 1909 Russian bond sales in New York, was $25,000,000, 45 tons of double eagles (new research). As to why all the "mystery," read my book The Tsar's Treasure (available on Amazon). In brief, had the amount of this loss been made public, it would have caused the immediate financial and consequent political collapse of the Tsarist regime - something Britain, France and the US could not allow in the pre-WWI environment.

    We are now owners of the ship and her cargoes, the US Government's claim for the loss of their cargo has been dismissed with prejudice, and all future claims have been barred. We have an injunction in place prohibiting any interference with our recovery.

    Here's a brief synopsis of the research,

    Now, all we have to do is recover our cargoes at a cost of about $8 million. We're looking for a $20 million investment, and will give you $100,000,000 on that investment. bayerle@lordsoffortune.com

    Gold-Coins.jpg

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    • 3 weeks later...

    "There are many rumours..."

    My favourite weasel words: 'It is alleged that... ' and 'There is a theory that...' both of which mean, either a world expert has done research and thinks that... or a guy in a pub says that...

    That, BTW, is a reference to BigJar's quote from Wiki, not to Etoile Blanche's cliam that there are 45 tons of double eagles down there.

    Here, BTW, is Wiki's synopsis of the actual dives on the Republic

    "The 1987 salvage effort was successful in targeting and excavating their target area, but failed to locate the gold, however. The crew excavated the target area but ended up in the ship’s wine locker, finding hundreds of pre-1900 bottles of wine and champagne.[11] Once they realized they were in the wine locker rather than the specie room, Capt. Bayerle flew to London and appeared on ITV and BBC radio, offering a £25,000 reward for the construction plans of the Republic.[12] No one came forth with the plans to the ship, however, and the salvage was terminated for lack of funds. Despite many years of research and effort, the plans to the ship still have never been found."

     

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    • 4 years later...
    • 2 weeks later...
    On 05/11/2021 at 04:49, Capt. Martin Bayerlr said:

    Here's an update on RMS Republic's gold. The link in the Press Release provides the details of her cargoes.

     

    https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/554396723/greatest-shipwreck-mystery-the-loss-of-the-tsar-s-treasure-aboard-rms-republic-solved

    Above link is a bit temperamental. If you can’t get it to

    open yet this one.


     

    https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/554396723/greatest-shipwreck-mystery-the-loss-of-the-tsar-s-treasure-aboard-rms-republic-solved

     

    Thanks for sharing Capt B. 
     

     

    Edited by bigjarofwasps
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    • 2 months later...
    • 8 months later...

    This appears to be typical treasure hunter B/S, a bit like the fraudulent Oak Island treasure (Believe in that then you believe in fairies, goblins and bigfoot). It's all designed to get retards to part with their money IMHO

     

    P

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    • 10 months later...

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