I remember acquiring my first Chovanak 4-5 years back. It was only the second time I had seen one and was thrilled to have acquired one. It’s also the one that got away. One thing about this hobby, is the large community of like minded collectors. We are all after the rarest and most special bars and often it leads to friendly and not so friendly competition. Another common occurrence is receiving offers out of the blue for your prized ingots. In this case, I was made an offer I couldn’t possibly refuse. I do regret parting with the piece, but was fortunate less than a year back to acquire a remarkable pair of Chovanak ingots.
The history is rich behind this old family refiner of many generations out of Helena, Montana. The family started mining in the late 1800s and produced ingots up until the early 1980s. It’s tough to put an exact date of some of their pieces, but over time there has been some distinguishing features on the ingots by era they were produced. I’m please to have a few different varieties to share in this blog post.
Thanks to another contribution from fellow collector, Brian R., I’m pleased to share additional images of other varieties below.
Out of all the 5 oz class vintage pieces I have in my personal collection. The two Chovanak pieces I own are among my very favorites.
Here is a rare large class Chovanak shared by Kerry F. Really appreciate you sharing. Very cool to see a 40+ oz class piece.
Vintage Silver Bars 