$1.4m gold found in sunken ship off US coast

Treasure hunters have recovered a gold bounty worth an estimated $1.4 million from a ship sunk off the US coast.

Deep ocean exploration company Odyssey Marine Exploration said in a press release that 1000 ounces of gold was recovered during a recent dive on the wreck of the SS Central America, a 19th-century steamship sunk off the coast of South Carolina.

It is not known how much gold remains in the wreck but the expedition will continue searching for the next several months.

The treasure included five gold ingots and two $20 Double Eagle coins (one 1857 minted in San Francisco and one 1850 minted in Philadelphia).

The ingots were "clearly visible" on the sea floor and did not need to be excavated.

A bottle, a piece of pottery and a sample of the shipwreck's wood were also recovered.

"This dive confirms for me that the site has not been disturbed since 1991, when I was last there," said Bob Evans, a scientist and historian with Recovery Limited Partnership, which conducted the search with Odyssey.

In the late 1980s and early '90s, more than $50 million of gold was recovered from the wreck.

However, the treasure-hunting was stopped over legal issues, according to the Guardian.

Odyssey Marine Exploration was granted rights to explore the wreck in March after a decades-long court battle.

The SS Central America was caught in a hurricane in 1857 and sank while carrying up to 21 tons of gold mined in California.

The huge quantity of gold lost contributed to an economic crisis dubbed the "Panic of 1857" which lasted several years.