1854SO 50C Chile NGC Shipwreck SS Central America NGC certified S.S. Central American 1853 Chile 50c, shipwreck effect, From the Pascual Esquerra shipment contained in the Gold Room, which constituted a "hoard" of Chilean silver coins. Pascual Esquerra was a Chilean and Spanish businessman, listing his hometowns as Valparaiso, Chile, and Zaragoza, Spain. In Panama he met up with a group that had sailed together from Callao, Peru. Jose Seguin, the Peruvian Minister to the United States, along with his Secretary, Nicolas Tirado. The group included Ange Richon, the Belgian Consul at Lima, Peru, who was carrying diplomatic dispatches to Paris. The silver coins found on the SSCA, especially the bulk shipment of Chilean silver coin, were not part of the Award that split the gold between the Columbus Discovery group and the surviving insurance companies. The Chilean coin was part of a shipment of silver by a specific passenger. It was, by its very nature, still considered "specie", and would have acted as money anywhere in the United States. Esquerra was shipping the Chilean silver, all held in the gold room under the control of Purser Hull.