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 Replies: 23 / Views: 3,467 |
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
616 Posts |
A U.S. deepwater salvage and exploration company said on Monday that it has recovered more than 61 tons of silver bullion this month from a British cargo ship that was torpedoed during World War II. Odyssey Marine Exploration said the recovery includes 1,574 silver ingots weighing about 1,100 ounces each. The silver was recovered from a depth of nearly three miles, and marks a record for the deepest and largest precious metal recovery from a shipwreck, the company said. http://news.yahoo.com/odyssey-explo...2757283.html |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
1080 Posts |
Dude, a 1,100-ounce ingot would be huge!
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
isn't that the same company that the discovery channel did a piece on?
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Moderator
 Australia
16826 Posts |
Odyssey finding and recovering silver from this wreck is actually pretty old news. Here's discussion from a year ago when Odyssey first announced they were going after it. In that old press release, they expected to be finished recovering this wreck "in the third quarter of 2012", so it sounds like they had a few hiccups to be only finishing up now, an entire year later. The "Treasure Quest" episodes covering the initial stages of the search have already been broadcast. Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Pillar of the Community
 United Kingdom
616 Posts |
According to a story I heard yesterday the British government is planning to melt the ingots down instead of sell them as is. That's a shame.
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3670 Posts |
"According to a story I heard yesterday the British government is planning to melt the ingots down instead of sell them as is. That's a shame."
Fools as it takes no rocket scientist to realize those bars would have brought way more on secondary seller market for their history and I am sorry this will tick many off but for their numismatic value lol....
Well numismatic value may not be right term, but I have ZERO doubt old bars have a aura collecting factor wrapped around all that old history and rarity now as many were melted down....
Its not like massive silver bricks from hundreds of years ago are easily accessed down the road at Billy Bob's garage sell. I would get up at 6 AM on Sat morings if one could commonly find these at such a location lol....
I recall a rare old silver bar which sold for like crazy high money on that Pawn Stars spin off show with the gun experts who run the old weapons auction house....
The bar had like 4k worth of silver spot seems like at the time and it sold for way more even though I cant remember exact figures (77k perhaps), but it was an unusal large size....
Edited by Silverhawk74
07/22/2013 10:53 pm
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Valued Member
United Arab Emirates
283 Posts |
Wow, I should've gone diving.
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Pillar of the Community
Japan
666 Posts |
no problem, they will mint them into overpriced Britannias
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Bedrock of the Community
13014 Posts |
Quote:
According to a story I heard yesterday the British government is planning to melt the ingots down instead of sell them as is. Hopefully they wont do it for all of them. I can understand why they will for some with that much being pulled up there is kind of a limited market of people who can afford to dish out massive amounts for something really cool like that. I do hope they save a few though, especially being a WWII relic that would draw interest from those collectors who otherwise might not care about silver at all |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3670 Posts |
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Pillar of the Community
United States
3670 Posts |
Wow each bar weighs 79.5 pounds each lol....
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Pillar of the Community
United States
4212 Posts |
I mentioned this post to my wife & a tennant this morning, the story was on the Today show today. I didn't see it, must have been new developments, But still....wow!
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Valued Member
United States
280 Posts |
That's about $40,000,000 worth of silver at current prices- wow!
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Pillar of the Community
United States
7840 Posts |
If I heard correctly on the radio this morning, the salvager company is to receive 80% of the bounty (booty)?
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Pillar of the Community
United Kingdom
616 Posts |
Yes before starting the operation they negotiated a 80/20 split in their favor with the British government. But I assume the had to pay all their own expenses and take the risk they wouldn't find the ship so it probably isn't as one sided as it sounds.
Edited by starbuxinvestor
07/23/2013 1:32 pm
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Moderator
Australia
16826 Posts |
I think they'd have been pretty sure they found the ship before talking to the British government about it. The uncertainty only lay in carrying out such a large salvage operation at those depths while staying on time and on budget. If they'd had to pay an entire crew for a couple of years, lost a couple of ROVs during the operation, and only had a couple of ingots to show for it, it would have been very expensive silver.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
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Replies: 23 / Views: 3,467 |
Posted 07/22/2013 9:16 pm
