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AZ,Prescott-Yavapai County,Thorne Mining and Refining Co. Silver Ingot No. 258

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Ingots Start Price:400.00 USD Estimated At:800.00 USD and UP
AZ,Prescott-Yavapai County,Thorne Mining and Refining Co. Silver Ingot No. 258
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1890-Thorne Mining Co., Silver Assay Ingot, Eureka District of Arizona. Measures approximately 2 inches x 1 inch x .25 inch thick.
This is an original, "Thorne Mining and Refining Co.," Silver Ingot, Eureka District of Arizona, with the unique, company mining scale logo stamped at top, along with the official weight and purity and serial number, below. The ingot contains no gold, the silver is .9998 fine, weighs 2.30 troy ounces, and was valued at the time of manufacture at $2.96. The serial number for this bar is 258. Thorne Mining & Refining Co. was operating around the 1890s in the Eureka District of Arizona. The Thorne ingots have been attributed to Prescott, Arizona from the 1890s. We were unable to verify this, and assume it was an assumption by prior writers, rather than hard fact. We found two companies of similar name, and a miner and prospector with the same name. A) Dan C. Thorn (e) (spelled both ways) was a miner in the Congress and Prescott area from the 1890s through about 1905, living in the Eureka district not too far from Bagdad, the site of a major open pit copper mine in later years. Thorn sold his claim groups in Congress in 1895-7 which were bought by the C. Clark Distillery of Illinois. Thorn lived in Prescott for some time. His father built the Palace Bar, a well known “watering hole.” There is no record of a Thorne Mining & Refining Co. in the Prescott records [Ref: Arizona Mining Directory of 1903 by Millward; Sharlot Hall Museum (Prescott) biographical file on Dan Thorn(e). B) The Thorne Copper Mining & Reduction Co. was based in Hawthorne, Esmeralda Co., Nevada. Stevens in 1908 wrote that this company had some “twin” companies with similar names that were all active around Walker Lake. We were unable to find specific reference to the Thorne Mining & Reduction Co., but it could certainly be one of the Esmeralda properties [Ref: Copper Handbook v8 p 1317] More work is needed to identify the source of this ingot. "These ingots have long been thought to be a creation of the 1950s. However, I finally did find an original 1904 ledger from Arizona for this exact same name company. The style of manufacture, however, does not generally lend itself to an early 1900s bar - it is similar in many respects to the Hoard ingots, which are not from the 19th century." [Ref: Fred Holabird] HKA#64769