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CO - Georgetown,Clear Creek - 1869 - Baker Silver Mining Company of Colorado Stock Certificate - Fen

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Western Americana Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 400.00 USD
CO - Georgetown,Clear Creek - 1869 - Baker Silver Mining Company of Colorado Stock Certificate - Fen
Session D is a Mail-Bid Only Auction. Absentee bids will be accepted only. No live bidding will be allowed. All winners will be contacted after the auction. BIDDING ENDS MONDAY JUNE 27 AT 5PM PACIFIC TIME!!!
Incorporated in Colorado in 1866 with offices in Philadelphia. Georgetown Mining District. No. 1711 issued to Mrs. Catherine Oberly for 8 shares on 5 May and signed by John Maish (?), Treasurer, and Edwin Booth, President. Booth, the older brother of presidential assassin John Wilkes Booth, lived and worked in Philadelphia from 1865 to 1867. While he could have been involved in this firm, we cannot say with certainty that this document was signed by Booth because he was living and working in New York City in 1869. He had built his own theater there after the one he was managing and working at in Philadelphia burned. As a world traveler and one who traveled to the west and acted in shows, Booth may have been familiar with mining and invested in them. He lost all of his money in the panic of 1873 and later rebuilt his fortune [Ref: http://www.theatrehistory.com/american/booth001.html]. The signature here could have been signed by “a secretary” in Booth’s absence. Ovando J. Hollister reported in his book The Mines of Colorado that the Baker Lode had “uncommonly rich ores, varying in width from twenty inches to twenty feet. The crevices consist[ed] of sulphuret and bromide of silver and argentiferous galena; all these ores being more or less interspersed within the vein matter of quartz and feldspar. Samples of ore, taken from these crevices, yielded by assay, as high as $800 to $2000 per ton” [Ref: Hollister, The Mines of Colorado, p. 260-61, 1867]. However, there is little information available on this particular company other than its mines were located on Kelso Mountain. A Mr. Wolters, a local assayer, took charge of running the mill owned by the Baker, and ran it until it burned down in 1871 [Ref: googlebooks.com]. Also affixed on this stock is a red, adhesive, R46 insurance, perf., and tied stamp. U/C. Excellent condition.