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NV,Treasure Hill-,Sweetwater MC, Engraved Trapezoidal Silver ingot

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Ingots Start Price:7,500.00 USD Estimated At:15,000.00 USD and UP
NV,Treasure Hill-,Sweetwater MC, Engraved Trapezoidal Silver 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

c1883-1887-The Sweetwater Mining Company silver ingot comes to us from the Western Collections of Richard Gooding, a major collector in Texas, who passed away a number of years ago. He had major collections of guns, Wells Fargo, and mining ephemera, all now long disbursed except the ingots, which were retained by the family until now. Family members also had strong mining ties, particularly with Alaska. This trapezoidal ingot is engraved on all six sides, burnished along the top edges. At 6 ounces, it measures 2.” x 1” x 0.5”. The ingot is marked:
Top: Sweetwater Mining Co. Treasure Hill, Nevada
Front side: Eugene D. Robinson, Managing Director
Right end: S.F. Paul, Superintendant (Supt.)
Back side: Chas W Havemeyer, President (scratched through)
Left end: F. W. Bouton, Secy.
Bottom: 6.ozs
The ingot appears to be an exhibition ingot used for public display, since it is not presented to any one person, or made by an assayer for a specific mine. It is one of less than five ingots from the White Pine region of Nevada, which held an important role in the mining history of the West. The Sweetwater Mining Company was formed in about 1883, having purchased or leased mine properties from the British funded Eberhardt & Aurora Company. The key mine in their holdings was the Original Hidden Treasure Mine–one of the best mines of the district–but they also owned the Stafford and other properties on the north end of Treasure Hill. Treasure Hill was one of two main mining camps in the White Pine (the other Hamilton) which were integral to the White Pine Rush of 1868-1869. The district was perhaps most famous for a “boom and bust” mentality, though production was nearly continuous for 100 years in different parts of the district. British investors quickly tied up all of the key mines, which left little room for speculators staking claims on worthless ground. The Sweetwater Mining Company had working sites at the north end of Treasure Hill as early as 1884. They had 14 properties, according to Burchard (1885). He further reported that since 1883 through the end of 1884, the Company had precious metal receipts of $73,350 (not reported in Couch & Carpenter). The Sweetwater MC ran a tunnel to the lower areas of the Hidden Treasure. 900 feet during 1883-4, and planned another 450 feet in 1885. The tunnel was being driven to search for deeper ore. The mine had been a winner for the Eberhardt and Aurora Mining Company, but the lack of near surface ore combined with fires at the mills in 1872 helped along their temporary demise. Eberhardt & Aurora successfully found some deeper ore at the Ward-Beecher in 1875. The Eberhardt & Aurora Company gave up in 1885 after spending a reported $5 million in exploration with little results, having sold off or leased various properties, including the Hidden Treasure to outside investors that included Havemeyer, Robinson et al. San Francisco assayer Thomas Price was sent to evaluate the area by the British interests, but his recommendations had to wait for new investors. The British abandoned their interests about 1885. While the district produced a reported $22 million from 1868-1885, little detail of the latter period is discussed in Jackson’s Treasure Hill. (1963) The district, however, never completely died. According to Roscoe Smith in Mineral Resources of White Pine County (1976), the mines at Treasure produced a little all the way through 1966.
From the records I was able to locate, activity by the Sweetwater Company ceased by the end of 1887. Stock certificates are known from the Sweetwater Mining Company.
The men whose names are engraved on this ingot are a typical cross section of the nineteenth century Nevada mining culture. One is a New York financier, one is a Nevada mining manager. Another is an assayer, and the third possibly a “corporate secretary.”
Chas. W. Havemeyer, president (scratched out).
Charles Havemeyer was a New York sugar merchant. He was part owner of a sugar refinery in New Yor HKA#61596