Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ Coin Resource Center covers far more than U.S. coins. Entries on Numismatic Americana, Colonial coins, U.S. Mint facilities, and various bullion products give visitors quite a bit to peruse. Today we’ll be looking at some of the more obscure CRC entries, those covering 19th century silver ingots.
Numerous assayers produced silver ingots across the West in the mid-to-late 19th century. Some of the firms that produced them are well-documented, others almost lost to history, found only in occasional newspaper notices and scattered records. Several examples of some ingots are known, while others are unknown to collectors, again visible only through historic newspapers and other records. The weights of the ingots vary, as do the styles of the punches used to stamp weights and names into the silver. The ingots run the gamut from crude to fairly sophisticated. A colorful cast of characters produced the ingots, some of whom have been studied by researchers.
Each entry contains a narrative sharing known details about the firms that produced each bar and examples known. Dates on the bars listed range from the late 1850s to the turn of the century and cover a wide geographic area, encompassing several western states and territories.
The CRC is an evolving database, and we welcome edits from knowledgeable readers.
