LOT Holabird-Kagin Americana  /  Mueller ~ Schmidtmann Western Americana BONANZA  / 

1811

Treasure Hill,NV - White Pine County - Pre-1900 - Silver Lead Ingot, 148 lbs :

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Bullion Start Price:500.00 USD Estimated At:1,000.00 - 3,000.00 USD
Treasure Hill,NV - White Pine County - Pre-1900 - Silver Lead Ingot, 148 lbs :
Measures 12" long, 4.75" wide and 5.5" tall, in a slightly trapezoidal shape. There is a chip off the upper right corner, about 1.5." Even though the ingot is not marked from a specific mine, its geochemistry is consistent with known silver-antimony ores from Treasure Hill. This large 148 lb ingot was dug on private property in the 1960's at a Treasure Hill Mine by a token hunter. It is poured in a classic 3000 troy ounce mould. It is comprised of many thin pours, and has no bullion stamps or punch marks. The ingot probably dates from the pre-1900 period, since this was the most active period of production in the district. It is a testament to the normal current and historical assay office procedures at an active mine site. The ingot is composed of at least nineteen separate pours, all visible in the external texture of the ingot. Each of these separate pours is most likely the subject of normal assay office or bullion room cleanup. It is common practice at precious metal mine sites in their melting rooms to save all floor sweepings, crush all old crucibles, and reprocess slag. These separate periods of cleaning or consolidation of waste or spillage were separately poured into a single 1000-2000 ounce bullion mould. The resultant ingot was kept in the mould until it was filled with metal. The historical assayer of this ingot drilled five holes in the bar in a combination of holes in the sides and through the top and bottom, trying to obtain a representative sample. We had the ingot sampled by American Assay labs in Sparks, who took samples from the existing holes. They also made new holes, completely penetrating the ingot in several places. The discontinuity or dichotomy of assay from layer to layer was clearly evidenced by the non homogenous nature of the assays. It took AAL several attempts to properly mix the cutting to obtain a well mixed and homogeneous sample for an "average" ingot value. During this process, the highly non homogeneous nature of the separate layers became apparent, as certain layers were high in silver (tens of ounces per ton or more) and some significantly lower. Antimony results also followed suit. This ingot is historically important because it is one of the few original such ingots to survive.



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