LOT Holabird-Kagin Americana  /  2013 Cowboys, Cameras & Coins  / 

989

Louis & Mac Kay 4.9 oz Ingot

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Ingots Start Price:2,500.00 USD Estimated At:5,000.00 - 9,000.00 USD
Louis & Mac Kay 4.9 oz Ingot
Preview
Holabird-Kagin Americana Office
3555 Airway Drive Suite#309
Reno, NV 89511
Thursday August22, 10am-6pm
* Preview also available by appointment

Live Auction
Friday & Saturday
August 23 & 24, 2013
9am PDT starting time, both days

Location
Atlantis Casino & Resort
Grand Ballroom #4
3800 S. Virginia Street
Reno, NV 89502

Lot Pick Up
Holabird-Kagin Americana Office
3555 Airway Drive Suite #309
Reno, NV 89511
Sunday August 25, 10am-1pm

-Interesting Louis & Mac Kay Silver Ingot
Louis & Mac Kay Silver Ingot. 4.9 ounces, 999 fine, No. 64. The ingot measures 34 mm wide, 56 mm tall, and 6 mm deep. Light gray patina. Housed in a green and clear plastic holder.

by Fred Holabird.
Introduction
I originally wrote a portion of the following story on this ingot in 2007. I first saw the ingot about the year 2000.
This silver ingot, which strongly resembles a mid to late-nineteenth century ingot, is particularly difficult to research. It bears a number of important physical attributes which fit the mold of non-western nineteenth century assayers. More information has come to light that ties it to an eastern refiner in the late 1860's.
Assayers working in remote mining regions of the western hemisphere often remain anonymous to modern historians. The general method of business recordation during the mid to late nineteenth century was through newspaper advertisements, local and regional directory listings and in the census data, taken only every ten years. The lack of surviving mining camp newspapers and poor directory and census coverage of remote territories results in poor historical records. All too often, there were no newspapers or local directories, so the historical record is scant of information. A classic example are the mining camps of early Colorado from 1859-1863, in which almost no newspapers other than Denver still exist, though there were many. There were no local or regional directories other than Denver.
Adding to the difficulty is the business system that developed over time. Miners and prospectors generally took their ores to the local or regional assayer for assaying. They then chose a custom mill to reduce their ore to bullion, which was then sold to a regional assayer or shipped to a branch mint. Many mining companies were financed from the East Coast or Foreign interests, especially British. Many of these companies shipped their ores to assayers, smelters and refiners near their corporate offices. These places included, to a large degree, San Francisco, New York, New jersey (where dozens of refineries were located), and places such as Swansea in Wales.
Prospectors and Miners took to the hills in search of riches after the California Gold Rush and Comstock lode discoveries. Rich silver deposits were found all over the world over the next two decades after 1860. Important silver discoveries were made in places such as Hamilton, NV, Park City, UT, and Leadville, CO. Also, huge silver deposits were exploited in Mexico, generally funded by Americans. Europeans funded silver mines in Hamilton, NV, South America and Wales. A much lesser important silver rush occurred for the Maine silver deposits about 1880. Ingots from these locales have been slow to come to light. Is the Louis & Mac Kay ingot here one of these? Is it the product of a New York funded mining company at Hamilton who shipped ore to New York?

A New York Connection?
Over the past decade or more, I have compiled a massive index of American Assayers, with perhaps 10,000 entries. The addition of fabulous internet research tools has added greatly to the search. Sites such as Ancestry.com,, geneology.com, newspapers.com, READEX and other sites provide a wealth of information not available ten years ago.
Nowhere in this material is found Louis & MacKay. But there are clues, and what appears to be a trail. The only place so far that either surname was located in related businesses is New York City. In Trow’s New York City Directory of 1869-1870, Alexander Mackay is listed as a refiner. Interestingly, F. D. Louis is listed at the same time as a watchmaker, one of the old professions from which assayers came, particularly for the California Gold Rush from New York. Mackay is not found in the 1865-1866 nor 1873-1874 directories, thus his time in the City was brief. Did he process ores from the Comstock? Were they from Hamilton? Leadville? Park City? Is this an early Maine silver ingot? The fact that he was there only briefly suggests strongly that he went to one of the remote mining regions before or after New York City. But where? And what ore was he processing?
The “999 Fine” stamped purity on the face of the Louis & MacKay ingot strongly points to a refiner, not a regional assayer. This supports the New York directory listing.
Discussion of Punch Patterns on the ingot.
The punch patterns exhibit signs of extreme crudity, in that all characters are individually letter or number punched. Most assayers used “gang” punches for standard abbreviations, such as “Oz” for ounces, the use of “Fine”, “gold”, “silver” and “total”. The assayer’s name or logo was also usually a “gang” punch. Here, however, everything is individually punched. This indicates to me that the bar is one of the initial bars made by this pair, and may have even been a tool to raise capital for a new assaying firm. There are several elements of extreme crudity that support that statement. The anomaly of the “z” in “Oz” here is that it is not a “z” at all, rather it is an “n” turned sideways. Imagine a skilled assayer losing or not using his “Oz” punch, a tool he used multiple times an hour. It is not likely, unless, once again, the ingot was produced from a remote mining region where access to punches is minimal to non-existent, or the makers were just starting out in business with little or no financial backing (not enough money for new punches).
The flat surface of the obverse of the ingot has the appearance of the surfaces having been ground down (filed) flat in places. When individual letters are punched, metal is displaced. The displacement can be lateral or orthogonal (show through on the other side of the ingot if it was thin). Near the period after “999” and the period between “4.9” there is obvious displacement of metal from the punch penetrating the bar`s surface, as there is around the “999” itself. The same type of displacement should be present around the letters, but none is visible. In fact, the upper edges of several of the letters exhibit signs of having been ground or filed, particularly over the word “fine” and in the assayer`s logo punch. This suggests the surface of the ingot has been carefully worked to remove roughness or to enhance the visual appeal. This could be the product of “cleanup” if the ingot were used in an exhibition, showing off high grade ores and their resultant product: bullion. As a 999 fine ingot, it had to come from a refiner, not a standard western assayer. The Mackay-New York refiner connection fits this ingot well, inclusive of the crudity typically representative of a less experienced refiner, as appears here.

Further, the even toned black substance that fills in the digits and letters is also an anomaly, suggesting artificial highlighting, which appears to be the case. Highlighting lightly debossed or embossed letters is a commonplace method of making an item more showy in appearance. It is very common in numismatic circles. A classic example are badly corroded coins where something such as shoe polish is needed to clearly display the letters and make them readable.
The ingot number placed on the reverse is standard to some assayers. On some of the S.S. Central America ingots, and others, we see serial numbers on both the front and back. The low number (No. 64), combined with the crude, individual character-punched logo indicates a short period of operation for the company, otherwise it would have had standard logo punches made for the name, and purchased easily attainable “Oz” and “Fine” punches from regular assay supply houses, such as John Taylor & Sons in San Francisco. Examples of legitimate ingots that utilized this methodology are known from the Owyhee region of southern Idaho, as are original photographs from the 1860s of similar ingots from the same region showing the same attributes.
Conclusion.
Conclusions regarding the source of this ingot are somewhat difficult to draw without the exact “hit” on Louis & Mackay. The summary of findings is as follows:
1. The ingot`s method of assay is non-standard for a small western assayer ingot (refined).
2. Louis & Mac Kay were not long-term assayers from mainstream western mining camps, though they may have operated in a remote location.
3. A refined ingot of this crudity is not normal. It suggests a less experienced person
4. A refined ingot of silver should have no attendant gold. There are small microscopic flecks of gold in the ingot.
5. The ingot`s surface has been enhanced. This suggests is has been “neatened-up” for exhibition purposes.
6. The crude punch patterns indicate a short-lived operation. There are no standard gang punches.
7. The ingot could be from a remote American mining camp, or be foreign.
8. The ingot may be an experimental ingot made for a partnership involving Alexander MacKay of (for a brief time) New York City, circa 1869. This fits the Hamilton, Nevada rush and may fit the early days of the Park City silver discoveries.
As yet, it is still not possible to date the pour of metal into an ingot mold. Until then, we won`t be able to render an opinion regarding authenticity for crude ingots such as this, which exhibit lots of genuine attributes, but potentially fails other tests. One must keep open the concept that an ingot such as this could have been made in a remote region away from the mainstream western mines, such as during the Maine silver rush of ca. 1880-1882 by an inexperienced assayer who never worked in the business for any length of time.
HKA#64831
Sign In to Bookmark Lot