I believe it makes sense to do an immediate follow up article to the recent discussion of "The Franklin Hoard" involving John J. Ford Jr. This is major history in the world of numismatics. I consider silver ingots to have numismatic value. Similar to old coins that are based on condition, unique factors, errors, and strike. Silver Ingots also take all of those factors into consideration when determining a value.
Now, "The Franklin Hoard" turned over many unique silver ingots that the world had never seen! Hence why the mystery continues. Did John J. Ford Jr. personally manufacture them? Or play a role in their production? I want to present Nevada Silver Co. silver ingots. The photos below are two examples that I own. The photos demonstrate two different molds sizes and landscapes. Check it out for yourself...
Both Nevada Silver Co. ingots share a $ value as well as an odd weight stamp. Purity stamp has a noticibly larger gap in between one vs the other.
Here is a photo showing the difference in mold size. One is thinner and shorter in size. The thinner shorter version seems to be less common amongst known examples.
999 and FINE have been doucmented stamped on the front, top edge, and reverse side of the bar. These two examples have different purity stamp locations.
The big difference here aside from the mold is the SERIAL NUMBER. A serial number on a Nevada Silver Co. ingot is not common. From my experience majority do not have serial numbers.
The differences between the two ingots shown above is certainly amazing. One would ask the question. Why are they so different? My first thought is that they were not produced in an efficient facility. Intentions were never for mass production. Each one is unique! More than likely someone produced one at a time in a small scale set up. Was this the work of John J. Ford Jr? Let me turn to the text book...
A photo of a documented example that sold at auction.
An amazing drawing documenting that "Ford" had 300-400 bar's. A comment was made at how bad the "die" was. That the eagle in the hallmark actually looked like a screaming goose!
This book is mindblowing! The type documentation presented in it is so unique. It's just full of evidence. Leaving it up to you to put the pieces of the puzzle together. I hope this article was informative and showed another side of the silver ingot world !! The history is all here!!
A Nevada Silver Co. silver ingot sold on EBay a few weeks ago for $1900.00.
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