Collection Highlights - Gold Way Assayers & Refiners
Today's my life is another vintage silver bar. This one is from the gold way assayers and refiners. It's a good looking into silver bar that has some nice details on the front, well the back is just a plain blank bar
Can't Find Anything Online
I honestly spent more time than I care to admit googling and looking for information on gold way. No matter what I looked for I seemed unable to find anything related to the history of the company. This seems to be one of the first times that I have been able to identify the mint producer of the bar but I am unable to find any history of the mint, where it was started, and when I operated. It just seems odd to me that it is such an enigma.
I was able to find plenty of images and prior auctions for similar bars but nothing that spoke to the company that produced them. When looking at the sole history it does appear these bars may carry a decent premium. They appear to be going for about 30 to $50 per bar depending upon condition and auction in 2024. I'm not sure why there is such a big price difference, ranging from $32 to $54. We're only five options this year so the history is not very deep, interferes that this might be a fairly rare bar.
Obverse
The front is has all the detail. I do like the way the company name looks with the GW and company logo. The rest of the bar is pretty straightforward with clean lettering that's easy to read and clearly dictates the purity and size
Reverse
It's been a long time since I have seen a reverse of a coin or a bar to speak completely blank. I suppose this leaves it's open for your own stamping or engraving but it doesn't really feel like that type of bar, more that they just put all of their working to the front and decided to not have the additional cost of imagery on the reverse.
Overall the design is okay, not my favorite but it is a solid design for vintage silver. My favorite part about bar is the unique design for gold way and the company logo that appears to be something that reminds me of a James Bond movie and how it starts or a key. There's just something about the GW and the alliance extending to the right that feels familiar.
