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1838

Virginia City,NV - Storey County - c1875 - Con-Virginia Silver Ingot :

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Bullion Start Price:10,000.00 USD Estimated At:20,000.00 - 30,000.00 USD
Virginia City,NV - Storey County - c1875 - Con-Virginia Silver Ingot :
Obverse reads: 2.65 oz / Fine / Silver / 998 / Fine / CON.VA / 1876. The word “silver” was originally stamped upside down, and corrected with an overstamping of “silver.” Measures: 2" x 1" x .25." There are cooling depressions on the reverse, with one medium central cooling fissure.



In 1870 the Consolidated Virginia Mining Company was formed from a number of small mines on the Comstock Lode near Virginia City, Nevada by John W. Mackay, James G. Fair and William S. O'Brien. The near-by California Mine was added later and Con-Va uncovered enough large ore bodies to be considered one of the largest silver producers on the Comstock Load. This ingot may have been produced for the Consolidated Virginia Mine exhibit at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia in 1876, but that is speculation. Very Rare.



The Con Virginia Mine Bars



The Consolidated Virginia Mine was one of the top two producing mines on the Comstock, and by the time it’s neighbor and chief competitor, the California Mine merged with the company, it was the most important mine in Nevada’s history. Together, the two mines produced over $125 million in gold and silver.

The Consolidated Virginia was originally the White & Murphy, the Sides Brothers claims, Central Company, and Kinney ground. Mackay, Fair, Flood & Obrien bought up the ground and began massive exploration on the main ore body. They struck pay dirt in October, 1873 when the “Big Bonanza” was found, first on the 1167 foot level. Dan DeQuille (History of the Comstock Silver Lodes and Mines, 1889) said “The space between the two walls was filled with what is locally called “vein material” (gangue), and in this was found the ore body or “bonanza” which was in one place over 300 feet in width. This mass of ore yielded from $100 to $700 per ton, but in places were found masses of pure native silver and spots of ore so rich in black sulphuret and gold that to make assays of it was much like making assays of pure metals.” $112 million was produced from 1873-1882 alone.

The mine was the subject of very serious stock jobbing, as Mackay withheld information about the discovery until after he and his partners had complete control of the stock. This happened several times over the first four years of production of the Bonanza.

The Con-Virginia Mining Company regularly gave away silver bars for charity. The Virginia City Territorial Enterprise often reported upon the generosity of the Con-Virginia giving away small or large bars, especially when it came to education or children. Unfortunately, only one small gold bar is known today, secreted away in a private collection. It is a “prize” bar, awarded to a student for some accomplishment. Though I have not seen the bar in thirty years, it is still believed to be in a Comstocker’s family.

This unique silver bar carries the date 1876, and has a punch unlike the post-1900 silver bars previously seen in numismatic sales. Each of these two style bars carry differing punches, but both are known in identical original form in the Mackay School of Mines (now Keck) Museum Collection, the repository of most of the Con-Virginia’s goods, donated by the Kendall family about 1929.

In 1876, several of the Comstock mines participated in the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. A small stamp mill was erected, and ore reduced from the Belcher, Ophir, Con-Virginia and other mines. This ingot, and one from the Belcher, are the only two surviving silver ingots from that great exposition.

Nevada began studying the possibilities of participating in the 1876 Centennial Exhibition in 1873, when a select committee recommended that the state participate. Some of the mines of the Comstock Lode had just produced record bonanzas, particularly the Crown Point and Belcher, the two largest mines at the time, which both went on to produce more than $70 million combined. The committee received an appropriation of $20,000 for the exhibit, which was to erect a quartz mill and have mineral specimens from the major mines of the Big Bonanza. The appropriation for the exhibit was so great, that organizers noted that only three states had larger appropriations, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts and New York. Nevada’s exhibit was unique. A complete quartz mill was sent to Philadelphia and reassembled at the exposition. Visitors watched as ores from three Comstock mines were processed, and this ingot is the probable result of one of those runs of ore.





The ore came from the Comstock Mines: the Con-Virginia, the California, the Ophir and the Belcher. It was packed in sacks and sent to Philadelphia by the Pennsylvania Railroad. The rock went into the stamps and came out in the form of powder, which was dissolved in a small stream of water that ran through a trough. The quicksilver was added and the amalgamation process took place. The mill stood in the Machinery Hall…





This ingot reads: “2.65 oz / Fine / Silver / 998 / Fine / CON.VA / 1876. The word “silver” was originally stamped upside down, and corrected with an overstamping of “silver”. Measures: 2" x 1" x .25".



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Driggs, Chris; “Nevada at the World’s Fair”; Nevada Historical Society Quarterly, Fall, 1999; p98. Ingram, The Centennial Exposition, 1876, pp165-166. Century Publishing Co, Important Events of the Century,… Illustrations and Descriptions of the Great Centennial Exposition, 1876, 1878, p281.
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