Looted USS Yorktown coins found in Chicago estate to be reunited with Navy artifacts
Sunken Navy treasure discovered by Chicago coin dealer
A handful of looted coins with a colorful history will soon be heading to Washington D.C.
CHICAGO - A handful of looted coins with a colorful history will soon be returned to the U.S. Navy and displayed in Washington, D.C., after being discovered in the estate of a Chicago-area resident.
What we know:
The find came thanks to the detective work of Russ Bega, a numismatist and chief operating officer at Harlan J. Berk Ltd., a coin dealer located in the Loop for more than 60 years.
On Thursday, Bega showed the five old coins that recently came into his shop, part of a larger cache of materials from an estate controlled by the Cook County Public Guardian’s Office.
"And they have a tag on them that says they're from the USS Yorktown," said Bega. "So being who I am I do a little bit of Googling and actually find out that these were looted from the ship."
The first USS Yorktown was a Navy sloop-of-war commissioned in 1839. In 1850, it was patrolling the African coastline on a mission to stop slave ships.
"Slaves were not allowed to be brought into the country anymore," said Bega. "And so to that end, the U.S. actually did do a fair bit of anti-slaving operations in the Atlantic."
But the Yorktown struck a reef and sank. While the crew was rescued, the ship and its belongings remained on the ocean floor for 150 years—until a Portuguese company discovered the wreck in 2000 and began salvage operations.
"There was a law passed in 2001 that essentially says American Naval vessels, no matter where they are, are U.S. soil," said Bega. "And when they sink they’re still property of the United States government. So the Navy is very interested in recovering pieces like this."
The Navy’s History and Heritage Command has already recovered some of the Yorktown’s items that had been auctioned in London.
Now, the five coins from the Chicago-area estate will be reunited with other Navy artifacts.
"These are going to be returned to the Navy in the next week or so. And they should go on display in a museum in Washington D.C. with the rest of the artifacts from the USS Yorktown."
Bega said the Navy was surprised when he reached out to report the find—especially since the coins are likely worth only about $1,000.
"We’ve been in business for 60 years, and we’ve made our name in honesty, integrity and also making sure that important pieces like this can be enjoyed by more people," said Bega. "If this gets one person interested in collecting coins or world coins, I think that pays dividends."
What's next:
The Navy will not be taking action against the person or estate that originally obtained the looted coins.