REPLICAS OF
THE DIXON GOLD COIN
The Real Gold Coins
DOES THE FRIENDS OF THE HUNLEY REALLY OWN THE TRADEMARKS ON THE GOLD COIN?
CHARLESTON , SC A 1860 $20 gold piece that lay on the bottom of Charleston Harbor for more than 137 years is in the center of a potential legal dispute between the "caretakers" of a Civil War artifact and the operators of a museum, the World War II aircraft carrier, Yorktown. The Yorktown Museum at Patriot's Point is in a battle to be the home location of the HUNLEY SUBMARINE.
Other local and international businesses including the owner of the website The Hunley.Com that use the name HUNLEY are also involved in lawsuits with The Friends of the Hunley, Inc. and Warren Lasch. Warren Lasch, from Michigan is no stranger to lawsuits.
The Patriot's Point Maritime Museum, state funded
and supported through tax dollars, was selling replicas of the coin, found
on the Confederate submarine THE CSS H L Hunley, for $9.95
with the profits going to the state.
NOTE: The
replica coin selling on ebay. Patriot's Point Maritime Museum price was
9.95, ebays price was 16.69.
But that has stopped since the Friends of the Hunley,
Inc. (a private non-profit organization) told the museum, anchored
by the Yorktown aircraft carrier, it didn't have permission to sell the
replica and could be in violation of trademark and copyright laws. The
Trademarks could potentially be owned by Warren Lasch, administrative
contact for the website, hunley.org, and may be held for private
benefit.
The Friends of the Hunley, Inc. claim trademark rights on
the image of the coin and copyrights for any photographs of it, despite
the fact that many people feel that those rights belong to all
Americans. The Friends have also claimed trademark rights on numerous
pictures taken while excavating the submarine and have removed them from
their website.
"We're stewards of the Hunley and Warren Lasch and
we basically have a significant obligation to protect the assets entrusted
to us," Warren Lasch, is chairman of Hunley organization. If the
group hadn't protested, it could have been interpreted as a waiver of
rights, Lasch said, and opened the door for other sellers to move in on
potential profits. The Hunley has been described as a "cash cow" and
rights to this historic monument have been carefully
guarded.
Hunley officials say the 1860 U.S. gold coin is worth
millions of dollars in part because of its unique story.
The
Hunley, discovered by Dr. E. Lee Spence, was the first sub to sink an
enemy ship during battle, but was lost in the 1864 battle with the
Housatonic. Its commander Lt. George E. Dixon carried the coin as a good
luck piece on the sub's last voyage. He had carried it in his pocket at
the Battle of Shiloh, where it deflected a Union bullet from penetrating
his leg.
The coin that Patriot's Point was selling was a duplicate
and even carried the inscription that Dixon put on it: "Shiloh April 6th
1862 My life Preserver." Several people have claimed that the original
gold coin was a fake and that the inscription was not simply scratched in
but made by a machine engraver.
Patriot's Point stopped selling the
coin replicas, although officials were unsure how many had been sold, so
the museum could work a deal out with Friends of the Hunley, Inc. to sell
the coin and other sub-related merchandise, museum Director David Burdette
said.