289

Silver Star Zinc Ingot

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Bullion Start Price:1,250.00 USD Estimated At:2,500.00 - 4,000.00 USD
Silver Star Zinc Ingot
IMPORTANT NOTE ON BUYERS PREMIUMS:

Lot 100 to 343 have a premium of 15%.

The rest of the sale is 19.5% as noted in the listing.

Lot Pick Up: Holabird-Kagin Americana,
3555 Airway Drive Ste #309,
Reno NV 89511,
Sunday - December 9, 10am-4pm
Debossed “Silver Star” with a star at each corner of the front nameplate, 8.5" x 18" x1.25.” On the back is shipping information in black paint, barely readable “H. I. W. / G-1497/ Honolulu, HI.” This ingot was found in Sacramento. We were unable to find any information on the company. I believe the Silver Star is a name for a smelter. We analyzed cuttings from this ingot under an SEM/EDS at American Assay Labs in Sparks. The ingot is a low quality zinc ingot, with a texture that we think shows older and more crude metallurgical construction, with many impurities. There is no silver. Zinc historically was mined in New Jersey near Franklin, and produced by such companies as New Jersey Zinc. There were a number of zinc smelters in the region, and there are numerous Silver Star mining districts in the Western United States, including one in Idaho. The Silver Star Mine, located about 30 miles from Ketcham, ID had a smelter at Ketcham in the 1890s to handle their zinc, which ran as high as 17% in the ore [History of Idaho, Lewis Publishing Co., pg. 441]. This is the only record we could find of a smelter with the same name. There is also a Silver Star smelter in China, that may pre-date WWII. Zinc was also mined in the upper Mississippi Valley region along with lead--in fact, a young George Hearst lived within a mile of one of the main lead/zinc mines in Missouri in his childhood. I suspect the ingot is pre-1900 based on its appearance, construction, and internal texture, but we simply don’t know. Regardless, this is the best antiquarian zinc ingot we’ve ever had or seen in any museums. -60405