Designed by Saint-Gaudens, this coin was never officially issued yet became the world’s most valuable coin. This is due to a number of reasons including how rare gold was slowly becoming in America. As a result, President Frankly Roosevelt took measures to remove gold from the open market save for collecting purposes. In addition, individuals […]

The USS Squalus was launched on September 14, 1938, commissioned in March of 1939, and sank in May of the same year during a test dive in shallow water off the shore of New Hampshire.  The Squalus had successfully completed 18 dives when it went down for another.  Failure of the main induction valve caused […]

From the last days of September through October 1863, Gen. Braxton Bragg’s army laid siege to the Union army under Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans at Chattanooga, cutting off its supplies. On October 17, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant received command of the Western armies; he moved to reinforce Chattanooga and replaced Rosecrans with Maj. Gen. […]

Dec 6th, 1917, fate was to intervene in a huge way for not only the crew of the ships, the Mont Blanc, and the IMO, but also for many other innocent people in Halifax Harbor in Nova Scotia Canada.  The IMO was a relief ship and was a neutral ship headed to New York to […]

Standing liberty quarters have had a history of controversy due to the multiple designs that have been displayed. These quarters where printed and used for the years 1916-1930. This means that within a fourteen year time span that this coin was being printed the design was changed over two times. This was because the first […]

The wreck of the S.S. Brother Jonathan on July 30, 1865 was a significant event both for the size of the disaster and for the speculation of sunken treasure that sprung up immediately after the wreck and continued for years. Unlike many other such stories, the tales of gold pieces buried under the waves of […]

Following the failure of the May 22, 1863 assault, Grant realized that Vicksburg could not be taken by storm and decided to lay siege to the city. Slowly his army established a line of works around the troubled city and cut Vicksburg off from supply and communications with the outside world. Commencing on May 26, […]

Shasta county in California was among the original counties of the state.  It was created in 1850 at the time statehood was declared.  The name came from Mount Shasta which came from an Indian tribe that once lived in the area.  The spelling of the name Shasta has varied through the years until the current […]

Nestled in the beautiful countryside is a small medieval castle village in southwestern France.  Rennes le Chateau brings tens of thousands of visitors to the area since the 1950’s when a local restaurant owner began rumors of a hidden treasure.  Along with the mysteries of the so-called treasure are the speculations of a possible alternate […]

Modern prospectors utilize everything available to give them an edge in gold mining.  Basically, however, the same gold panning technique is used as was back in 1849.  Many people today use metal detectors to help them find what could be larger deposits of gold.  Dryblowers are also used by some and are now almost all […]