Among the pioneer gold coins recovered in 2014 from the 1857 wreckage of the SS Central America, one is highly distinctive — an 1852 Wass Molitor & Co., Small Head gold $5 coin that bears a countermark. “This fabulous coin was part of a large deposit of coins in the debris field,” said the salvage expedition’s chief scientist and historian Bob Evans. “I believe those represent gold carried in a parcel by a passenger, the parcel having long since disintegrated, leaving a ‘coin pile.’ “There were coins of all U.S.-made denominations in this deposit: from double eagles down to quarter-dollar fractionals, as well as ... (full story)