Gold coin brings healthy wad of cash: $100,000

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Ronald J. Gillio swapped $100,000 for a single gold coin -- and was pleased with the exchange.

"It's a beautiful coin. I love just looking at it, holding it. (I'm) glad I'm able to own it," said Gillio, a San Francisco coin dealer who bid highest for the 1865 coin at a Saturday auction.Experts consider the gold piece the prize of the 1,207 coins salvaged from the S.S. Brother Jonathan. Minted in San Francisco, the coin contains a printing blunder and is one of only 36 known to exist.

The Brother Jonathan, a wooden-hulled paddle steamer, sank July 30, 1865, about four miles off Crescent City. The ship, which carried sailors, miners, politicians and prostitutes, was headed for the Pacific Northwest, but struck a submerged rock.

The ship's wreckage lay undisturbed for more than 120 years until El Cajon-based Deep Sea Research LLC discovered it in the early 1990s.

James Wadsley, co-founder of Deep Sea Research, said his own take from the find is minuscule considering the amount of time he invested.

"I've figured it out -- I'm making $1.43 an hour," he said. With his earnings, he's going to "replace the T-shirt with the hole in it and get a new hubcap for the station wagon."