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U.S. Assay Office and US Mint Ingots Precious me U.S. Assay Office and US Mint Ingots

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:1.00 USD Estimated At:1.00 - 1,000,000.00 USD
U.S. Assay Office and US Mint Ingots Precious me U.S. Assay Office and US Mint Ingots
<B>U.S. Assay Office and US Mint Ingots</B></I><BR><BR>Precious metal ingots have been made at the U.S. Branch Mint and Assay Offices since their inception. The only definitively pre-1900 Mint or Assay Office ingots that exist in the knowledge of the author (Fred Holabird) are from the Denver Branch Mint, held in an institutional collection. Most of the ingots seen today at coin shows are a product of twentieth century collecting. Most are silver and post-World War II. A few gold ingots from these entities have surfaced, rendering speculation that they may have been kept in Europe while the Gold Reserve Act of 1933 rendered gold illegal for Americans to own until 1975, four years after President Nixon changed the complex system under which gold backed currency and opened the gold market to free trade.<BR><BR><B>Ingot Diagnostics and Comments</B></I><BR><BR>Each Mint had its own punches made with their own vignettes. Some placed dates on the ingots, which has started an entirely new area of collecting for numismatists. San Francisco mint ingots appear the most common at this time. There are several different forms of the vignettes, a shorter eagle looking left in an oval, and a more evenly statured eagle in a circle. It has been assumed that the oval eagle pattern is older, and while this may be so, no proof has been found in a thorough literature search. The circular patterns with dates are all post-1945. Assay Office ingots are significantly more rare than their Mint counterparts. Only two different U.S. Assay Office ingots have been seen by the author over the past 35 years, New York and San Francisco. New York Assay Office gold ingots are known dated from 1933 onwards.<BR> At least two of the U.S. Mints have sold parts or all of their old bullion room equipment inventories over the years. Philadelphia sold off some equipment, including some of their antique Trommner bullion scales. San Francisco sold off bullion punches and tools, among other things. To date, at least two fake U.S. Assay Office San Francisco "silver" ingots have surfaced, indicating this bullion punch may have found its way into the wrong hands. Both are lead, plated with silver, and have the identical USAO-SF vignette bullion punch found on authentic bars.<BR><BR><B>The San Francisco Assay Office</B></I><BR><BR>The San Francisco Assay office officially opened in 1854 in conjunction with the U.S. Mint. When coinage was suspended in 1955, the old mint continued to act as the San Francisco Mint and Assay office. In 1962, the name was officially changed to the US Assay Office, San Francisco, under which capacity it still serves today, including the housing of some of America's silver bullion. The following group of 60 San Francisco Mint and Assay ingots is the most comprehensive collection that we are aware of.<BR><BR><B>1959 San Francisco Mint Silver Ingot.</B></I> 5.06 ounces. Circular stamp / 5.06 / OZS / 999.5 FINE. Bright silver surfaces with the number 40 on the short, bottom edge of the ingot.<BR><I>From The Alan Bingel Collection, Part Two.</B></I>