10481

Silver Chamber Mine Silver Ingot. The Silver Cham

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / US Coins Start Price:4,750.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
Silver Chamber Mine Silver Ingot. The Silver Cham
<B>Silver Chamber Mine Silver Ingot.</B></I> The Silver Chamber Mine is located on Union Hill in the Reese River district near Austin, Nevada. It was located in 1863, along with more than 1000 other mining claims as part of the Reese River Silver Rush that year. Little work was done the first year; indeed, the mine is not mentioned in the fist six months of 1864 in the <I>Mining and Scientific Press.</B></I> Prospecting continued at the Silver Chamber for a number of years. It is not listed with official production in 1865, 1866, or 1867. In the second and third quarters of 1868, the mine produced $8200 from 28 tons of ore, indicating the very high value and richness of the ores of nearly $300 per ton.<BR> The mine was patented (taken private) before the end of the decade and by 1869 had a 385-foot deep inclined shaft accessing the underground ores, according to Ross Raymond in <I>Mineral Statistics West of the Rocky Mountains,</B></I> 1870. Work had been suspended toward the end of 1869. Through July of that year, only 22 tons of ore had been mined that paid $7166. The ore was, however, excessively rich, worth nearly $350 per ton in silver. Later news of the Silver Chamber is absent from the historical record. The Manhattan Silver Mining Company bought many of the good producing mines of Reese River, consolidating them into a single company. The Silver Chamber may have been one of these.<BR> This small ingot marked with the Silver Chamber Mine name and the Nevada Territorial (N.T.) designation is the only Territorial-marked Nevada ingot in existence to the knowledge of the author (Fred Holabird). It probably represents a first production product made just after discovery, and was perhaps used to help raise money through the sale of stock. Many (if not most) of the mines in the Reese River District were financed in New York, and the Silver Chamber was probably no exception.<BR> Ingots such as this were on exhibit at the 1867 Paris International Exhibition. In that large exhibition, Nevada ores played a prominent role. Located just outside the main exhibit grounds because of a late arrival, more than 50 different specimens from Reese River ores and a few ingots were on display, though this is not known to be one of them.<BR> This ingot is a product of Theall Co., whose imprint is on the top of the front side. By way of explanation, The Theall Co. were classic Comstock era assayers, who branched out to many of the Nevada silver mining camps as news of their discoveries were announced to the public. H. W. Theall, born in New York in 1827, bought E. Justh's assaying business in Marysville in 1859. At the time, his competition was the well known gold rush assaying firm of Harris Marchand, who later sold out to David Knight in 1863. Theall may have investigated the mining rushes at Unionville in 1861, Aurora in 1861-2, and Reese River in 1863. His contemporaries in Marysville certainly did, as Knight went from silver camp to silver camp, establishing assay offices in some, and working in others. Regardless, Theall had set up an assaying business in Virginia City, Nevada Territory by late 1862 or early 1863 on the corner of C and Taylor streets, right in the center of town. About this time, Theall may have opened a satellite assay office in Austin, the center of the then booming silver camps of the Reese River Region. During this booming period of the early 1860s, Theall lived in Virginia City, while his Marysville office was leased or managed by another person. His Austin office was later managed by A. Soderling, a well known assayer in Nevada mining camps, who later worked in such places as Bodie and Treasure Hill.<BR> Theall's business was so important to the financial infrastructure of the Comstock and Austin, that he took on as partners the bankers Paxton & Thornburgh, who were the major bankers in Austin and to a much lesser degree on the Comstock. When the White Pine rush attracted thousands of miners and businessmen to this remote eastern Nevada mining region in 1868, Theall was among them. He set up an assay office there, but sadly perished in May of 1869 from an unknown illness at the age of 42.<BR> The small rectangular ingot has imprinting on all six sides. The top side reads: NO 00. /THEALL CO / 1.05 Ozs / SILVER / 990 FINE / $1.54. / AUSTIN / N.T. The back side reads: SILVER CHAMBER MINE / U S / INTERNAL / REVENUE / TAX / $0.0067. The short sides read: SEPT 20TH and 1864. The long sides read: MAKING PER TON $2680.00 and FROM 1 LBS. OF ROCK. A fascinating and undoubtedly unique piece of Western Americana.<BR><I>Accompanying this lot is a duplicate bullion receipt from the Savage Mining Company in Marysville, a separate but associated company also under the Theall & Co. name. The receipt is dated 1866.</B></I><BR><I>From The Alan Bingel Collection.</B></I>