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NV,Aurora-,Real Del Monte Consolidated Gold and Silver Mining Company Stock Receipt

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Stock & Bond - Mining Start Price:250.00 USD Estimated At:500.00 USD and UP
NV,Aurora-,Real Del Monte Consolidated Gold and Silver Mining Company Stock Receipt
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

1863-This lot is a remnant of a checkbook for one of the most powerful and successful of all the Aurora Nevada mines. There is little remaining today of business records from Aurora from the early pre-Nevada statehood years. Most of the Real del Monte material known are unissued checks and receipts. This group has one of the unissued check pages, and may have originally been the source of all the known unissued checks. Attached to it is a check register filled in for hundreds of checks from about mid 1863 to early 1864.
The Real del Monte was among the top two producers of Aurora, along with the Wide West (the mine Sam Clemens and partners located but did not get the paperwork turned in to the County/District Recorder’s office in time, so they lost their “discovery”.) The company built a mill early on, but it was insufficient, and a new mill was built during the period of this checkbook for a reported $250,000 (1864 Directory).
This check register shows a number of very important things about the mine. It has virtually hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of checks written and issued over a short period of time. Some of the most prominent names appearing in the register are the two bankers: Howard & Sanchez and Francis Garesche (banker and Wells Fargo agent). A third major component is J.J. Poor (no info at present- not in NT or SF directories.) Also mentioned is H. Crittenden, one of the famous Crittenden family, whose family archive still exists today, and is so well known to cover and express collectors.
The Real Deal Monte and Wide West were the two major producers at Aurora. Unfortunately, the production records do not survive, and today have been interpreted way down the line as “$29 million from 1861 to 1869”. But after inspection to find the source of that data (F.C. Lincoln, who complained he couldn’t find good records), it is clear that the only data that was ever reported was the bullion shipped through Wells Fargo. No other data was found or assimilated, so the original figure of $29 million only comes from published WF & Co. reports, and is therefore quite short, particularly since there were other major express lines in and out of Aurora including Langton’s Express, as well as plenty of unrecorded WF & Co. and other private shipments that did not declare a value.
When this check register was used, Aurora had a population of 4,000 (Browne, MRWRM, 1868) to 10,000 (Ross, GMDMCN, , 1961), depending upon which source you believe. It was booming. But metallurgical problems began to arise, and the technical part of silver/gold metallurgy hadn’t yet been developed with Aurora ores yet. A doldrum period ensued, but within a decade, production was back, but only after the metallurgical problems were solved. Even though the mines averaged “$40-70/ton” (Browne), they weren’t worth salt unless you could unlock mother nature’s secrets and remove the gold and silver.- HKA#64875