1846/5 Eagle (1846/5 $10) Double O, SS Republic NGC XF45. The featured coin is an 1846/5-O $10 eagle with a doubled O, graded XF-45 by NGC. This coin was recovered from the S.S Republic and the slab is denoted with the blue shipwreck label. From the overdate to being recovered from a shipwreck, this coin is bursting with numismatic history. The Mint Act of 1792, passed by the United States Congress on April 2, 1792 , established the United States Mint as well as regulated the coinage of the new and emerging country. The Mint Act of 1792 established the dollar as the unit of money and declared it legal tender as well as establishing a decimal system for U.S currency. Under the Act, the largest gold coin to date was authorized, the $10 gold Eagle.

As the first Secretary of Treasury of the United States , Alexander Hamilton had envisioned a monetary standard where gold would be the only legal tender, and coins of other metals would be simply a convenience. He believed that golds price stability was the most consistent of all of the precious metals and be less sensitive to changes in supply. Many considered his idea to be utopian and idealistic and in 1790, Congress settled on a bimetallic standard. Mint Director Robert M. Patterson was instructed to produce $10 gold eagles, and Acting Engraver Christian Gobrecht, replacing the ailing William Kneass, prepared dies for a new design.

Gobrechts design for the Liberty Head $10 gold piece was inspired by the portrait of Venus in Benjamin West's Painting Omnia Vincit Amor (Love Conquers All). The obverse features a bust of Liberty facing left, wearing a coronet inscribed LIBERTY. Her hair is knotted in the back with hanging curls. Thirteen stars encircle the bust, with the date positioned below. The reverse depicts an eagle holding an olive branch and arrows, surrounded by the inscriptions UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and TEN D. Mintmarks are below the eagle.

On October 25, 1865, the S.S Republic sank off the coast of Georgia carrying a cargo of $400,000 in gold $10 and $20 coins that were intended to be used as hard currency in Louisiana, after the Civil War left the states with miniscule amounts of tangible money.

In 2003, the wreck of the S.S Republic was rediscovered, in its hull; over 50,000 coins, including the incredible example being offered for sale. In the early years of the US Mint, steel to make dies was scarce and funds were scarcer. The Mint operated on a shoestring budget and if any dies were leftover at the end of the year, there was good reason to reuse them. There are many overdates from the 1790s and early 1800s and many were probably caused by economic reasons.