A unique $3 denomination note issued by aNew Jersey bank is among a small number of banknotes that survived the 1857 sinking of the fabled the S.S. Central America, and soon will be offered to collectors for the first time. They are among the many highlights of California Gold Rush-era artifacts in an auction to be conducted on December 3, 2022 in Reno, Nevada and online by Holabird Western Americana Collections (www.HolabirdAmericana.com).

The $3 note was issued by the State Bank of Newark, New Jersey, and is theonly known example to have been in circulation, apparently used to purchase a ticket on the legendary ship.

Other numismatic items recovered from the legendary ship, including goldtreasure shipment boxes, gold miners' pokes, and bags from the Purser's safe that contained coins during the ill-fated voyage, are also in the first of two planned auctions of never-before-offered unique artifacts from the ship.

said Fred Holabird, President of Holabird Western Americana Collections.

The auction will be conducted at the Reno, Nevada Convention Center andonline on Saturday, December 3. A second auction of hundreds of additional one-of-a-kind artifacts retrieved from the famous shipwreck will be offered in February 2023.

explained Holabird.

The five banknotes in the upcoming auction are:

The notes have been expertly conserved by the Northeast Document Conservation Center in Andover, Maryland.

explained Dwight Manley, Managing Partner of the California Gold Marketing Group which consigned the notes to the auction.

Cargo treasure boxes in the auction include the lid from a Wells Fargo gold shipment box and a treasure shipment box from San Francisco Gold Rush-era bankers Sather & Church. There are also gold miners' pokes (small satchels or pouches usually made of buckskin) and a cloth bag found in the Purser's safe with the word written in black ink on it, although records indicated it had held U.S. quarters and half-dollars.

A gold stickpin crafted with a U.S. Type II $1 gold coin of 1854-1856, the Purser's keys to the treasure storage room and a sampling of nine unconserved pocket change coins gathered from the seafloor around the shipwreck of the SS Central America will also be offered along with nearly 300 lots of recovered exquisite Gold Rush jewelry, vintage 1850s clothing and other unique artifacts from the legendary ship.

Clothing items include the important discovery of the oldest known Gold Rush-era miner's work pants jeans with a button fly that may have been made by or for Levi Strauss in his early years in business. The pants and early Brooks Brothers undershirts with the company's famous emblem that will also be in the auction were in the first-class passenger trunk of merchant and Mexican-American War military veteran John Dement of Oregon.

said scientist Bob Evans who was on each of the recovery missions.

The tragedy of the S.S. Central America sinking took the lives of 425 of the ship's 578 passengers and crewmembers, and the loss of the gold cargo was a major factor in the economically devastating financial Panic of 1857 in the United States.

Insurance claims for the loss were paid in the 1850s and the company thatdiscovered and retrieved the treasure starting in 1988 settled with the insurers and their successors in 1992. With court approval, California Gold Marketing Group acquired clear title to all of that remaining treasure in 1999 as well as all the items recovered in 2014.

Holabird Western Americana Collections has prepared an extensive, limitededition 280-page catalog with dozens of previously unpublished illustrations of the S.S. Central America recovery operations, some reproduced in 3-D as shot during the discovery missions with a remote-controlled submersible nicknamed Copies of the catalog are available while supplies last for $100 each with the price refundable with any purchase from the auction. Auction lots can also be viewed online.

For additional information about the recovered artifacts auctions planned for December 2022 and February 2023 and to obtain a printed catalog, visit Holabird Western Americana Collections of Reno, Nevada at www.HolabirdAmericana.com, call775-851-1859, or email info@holabirdamericana.com.