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To: goldsnow who wrote (44410)	11/1/1999 8:56:00 AM
From: Alex	Respond to of 116759

Sunken gold lost for 140 years up for sale LONDON: It was the Titanic of the 19th century and a salvage miracle 100 years later. Now a gold-rush tale of tragedy, perseverance and invention reaches its climax when 400 pounds (181 kg) of sunken gold, part of a huge treasure which lay buried on the ocean floor for more than 140 years, goes on sale in December. The precious find -- nuggets, ingots and coins -- is part of the first successful salvage of a treasure ship, the SS Central America, which sank in 1857 off the east coast of the United States, laden with Californian gold, reports Reuters. The gold on auction is just the insurers' share of the original 2.5 tonnes claimed lost in the sinking. The remaining 90 percent now belongs to the salvage team of engineer Tommy Thompson, who went through an eight-year legal wrangle to keep their share of the find. The auction on December 8-9 in New York could net up to $10 million, according to Sotheby's which is carrying out the sale. But that is only a fraction of the estimated total 21-tonne haul -- the value of which could top one billion -- most of which still lies on the ocean floor. "The bottom (of the ocean) was carpeted with gold. Gold everywhere, like a garden. The more you looked, the more you saw gold growing out of everything," said Thompson, describing the scene of their first uncovering of the sunken treasure. Sotheby's says the sale is generating a lot of interest. "I've never seen coins of that period (1856) in such a remarkable state of preservation. They're perfect and collectors will go crazy," said Sotheby's coin expert David Tripp. "They're also historically significant -- a manifestation of the gold rush which set the course of American history, put it on the map." GOLD RUSH FEVER The steamer travelled every fortnight, with mail, freight and eventually passengers on the New York-Panama route. But when gold was found in the new state of California, gold rush fever gripped the nation and the sea routes took on a new importance. Travelling east to west, the steamer's cargo was a human one -- the hordes of people out to make their fortunes in the gold fields. On the return trip, the ships were laden with the precious metal. "These ingots were never meant to last. They were heading for New York to be destroyed, melted down and used commercially to fuel the economy of a young nation," Tripp explained. On September 8, 1857, the SS Central America set sail from Havana, carrying 500 passengers and 21 tonnes of gold. At first the seas were clear and calm. Then the weather changed and soon the crew was battling hurricane-force winds and 10 metre (33 feet) waves. Water seeped into the hold and cooled the engines, the paddle-wheels stopped turning and the vessel began to flounder 300 km (186 miles) off the coast. As the women and children huddled in the saloon, the menfolk bailed out the water but it was a losing battle. The ship began to sink to the sea floor 2,400 metres (7,874 feet) below. In the end, 428 people lost their lives, the gold going down with the ship to the bottom of the ocean. THE SEARCH Thompson began researching the Central America more than 20 years ago. Never before had anyone salvaged a deep wreck -- the U.S. government had thrown millions at the challenge and failed. Thompson had no money but he gathered a group of like-minded people and found investors. But they were not treasure hunters; they were scientists and their pioneering work pushed out the boundaries of marine exploration. Once Thompson's team found their target, more than two kilometres under the surface, treasure hunters began circling the ship like vultures. But he fought them off with court action, invented a robot to extract the gold and artefacts and began scientifically recording the whole process. BREAKTHROUGHS IN MARINE BIOLOGY As the gold was recovered, the team discovered new marine life forms and biologists began investigating what they found on a seabed otherwise barren because of its extreme depth. The variety of life there intrigued them. They concluded the ship had spawned a food chain starting with wood-boring worms and going on to coral and sponges and even Greenland sharks never before seen so far south. But while the life forms around the wreck have evolved, the gold has remained unchanged and pristine. Even gold dust was lifted from the ruins. "There's something for everybody in this sale and it's all perfectly preserved," said Tripp, adding that smaller nuggets and gold dust would be auctioned on the Internet at prices starting from around $100. Treasure still lies within the sleeping wreck and marine secrets continue to lurk in its environment. expressindia.com

To: goldsnow who wrote (44410)	11/1/1999 7:56:00 PM
From: Alex	Respond to of 116759

FAME receives hundreds of e-mails each month. This is the first time we have decided, with the author?s permission, to post one of those e-mails. We do it because it is such an impassioned testimony about the Fight for Honest Monetary Weights and Measures from someone who has experienced first hand the perils of fiat money. ÿ Ilya Beloozerov writes: ÿ Hello, ÿ No, no need to thank me at all. Ultimately, we are all in this together. ÿ As to your question about myself. I was born in the Soviet Union and left in the 80's. I have seen what inflation can do to a fiat currency. The ruble has depreciated so much that people had lost their entire life savings. Some data points: In late 1986 when I left the average salary was about 5 fiat rubles per day or 150 per month. When I visited the country again in 1997, the prices were in the thousands for the most ordinary items, like 9,000 rubles for a 2-liter coke. What a joke. Anybody with an ounce of brain knew this was coming. The green rag isn't backed up by anything more and it awaits the same fate. ÿ By the way, the Russian word rubl' (ruble) comes from "rubit'" which means "to cut or to chop". Many centuries ago, silver bars were used as currency. To get smaller payments, people would chop them with an ax - and that is where the term "ruble" came from. It is abundantly clear that the current ruble has nothing to do with the real ruble which is made of silver! ÿ I truly hate fiat money with a passion. I think that it is the root of all political problems in this country and the number one priority. Of course, I did not understand that immediately. It took me some time. I have met some interesting people like James Ewart who wrote Money: Ye shall have honest weights and measures. I was deeply influenced by The Creature from the Jekyll Island, which is another excellent work. These ignited my interest and I read a lot of other books on the subject. ÿ I could tell you a lot but I would be just preaching to the choir. Fiat money is the ultimate political evil and I really cannot tolerate it anymore. I cannot, and I am willing to work very hard to restore some sanity into the system. I used to be active in other causes, i.e. defending the Second Amendment to the Constitution, and the Tenth Amendment, and while these are still good fights, they are trivial and insignificant compared to this one. ÿ In fact, everything in my life is insignificant compared to this issue. What difference does it make if I work hard for the next 10-20-30 years and buy a nice house, a car and a boat if the society collapses? Then nothing will matter. And I really do think that it is the battle of tremendous proportions with huge consequences. I am tired of wasting my time on trivialities. What I have seen happen in Russia is a very good motivator to say the least. ÿ In terms of personal info, I am 25 years old, I live in Seattle and I work as a Unix systems administrator, although I am not sure I want to do this for a long time. I think I could be a pretty enthusiastic resource! I am unable to commit myself full time to the cause yet - but inevitably this moment will come too. For now, I would like to contribute in some way, on top of financial help. I would really like to gain some experience in this field since I have little political experience - my experience extends to helping to elect a few candidates - at the time I was flirting with the Republican party. ÿ In short, anytime I see the green rag, it makes me ill. I really cannot go on like this anymore. I cannot sit back and enjoy anything knowing that this tremendous fraud is going on. I don't know how else to make it more clear. I am willing to do whatever it takes to reform the system. I don't think minor patches here and there will do. Radical monetary reform is the answer, and that means either going back to the old standard of 24.75 grains of gold or 371.25 of silver or defining a new standard in grams. Either way.ÿ It is totally sink or swim kind of thing.ÿ I absolutely and actively refuse to participate in the monetary fraud. fame.org