Engelhard

When it comes to collecting vintage silver bars, it’s hard to top Engelhard. They have been the biggest name over the years in the silver bar game and have a very large following among serious collectors. While I’m not an expert on Engelhard, there is a lot of great information available on the company, and particularly the reference site allengelhard.com, which breaks down the different sizes, varieties, estimated mintages, etc. Check out this resource if you have not already. I started slow with Engelhard, but over the years started to hoard them and believe these are value bars with fair premiums in many cases. Some can get ridiculously expense, but such is the game of supply and demand. The P series “waffle backs” are one of my favorite Engelhard bars to stack because they can still be found for premiums that don’t break the bank. With that said, these will most certainly appreciate in value as more collectors enter the market and hold these in their collections.

7th series ‘P’ serial variation and 10th series ‘P’ serial variation. These were made out of Plainville, Massachusetts in the late 70s, hence the ‘P’ serial. Estimated 50,000 were made of each, but many have not survived over the years due to being melted down, especially in 1980 during the height of the silver rush.

Love the waffle backs! Notice the imprint on the bar second row from bottom? This is not an error. It’s known as a reverse convex stamping impression, as sometime the belt was empty and the stamp hit the belt, leaving an impression over time, which later was reflected in the bar pictured above.

One of my personal favorites is the 9th series ‘W’ prefix Engelhard bars that were made on the West Coast out of Anaheim, CA from 1979 onward until they ceased operations there in 2000. These bars have really appreciated in value over the 6 years that I’ve been collecting. I’m really fortunate to have a nice group here.

Estimated mintage of 18,000. These just don’t come up that often anymore. Grab them while you have the opportunity to do so.
Love the look and character of these bars.

It could take a lifetime to collect all the varieties that Engelhard has to offer. I’d like to share some additional varieties that I have acquired over the years.

11th series in ‘P’ prefix, these are much more common with estimated 200k mintage. These are also known as “pillow top” style.
Top example also has the reverse convex stamping. Cool example.
3rd series 10 oz Canadian variety with bull hallmark. This series pictured was most common in Canadian variation with estimated 50k pieces made. The top bar was my first Engelhard LCS find ever and picked it up at generic prices. It was game on after this!
Reverse of the 3rd series Canadian variety.

3rd series in 5 digit serial variety. I’m a big fan of this bar and love not only the hallmark, but also the lines around the bar. This is sometimes known as a starburst effect.
Reverse pic of the 3rd series 5 digit ingot.

My favorite Engelhard is the rare 6th series in ‘P’ serial variety with SilverTowne counterstamp. I waited a long time to acquire one in this condition.

Absolute stunner. Incredibly hard to find them in this condition.
Beautiful reverse on the “EngelTowne.”

My real love is 5 oz pieces, though, and I have some nice examples, but always looking to add more Engelhard pieces in this weight class.

Extremely underappreciated in my opinion are the 5 oz pillow top 8th series in ‘P’ serial variety. Estimated 10k minted. I’m a huge fan. See bottom two are sequential. Not easy to come by.
Smooth reverse exterior. These have a flat machined finish.

These are my rarest of the 5 oz Engelhard pieces below.

Top left is my rarest 5th series with partial X error. Estimated <100 made. Top right is a 3rd series 6 digit Canadian variety with estimated 5k mintage. Bottom right is 4th series in ‘MFR’ (Metals Fabrication & Refining) variety with estimated 700 made. Bottom right is 7th series ‘T.OZ’ with estimated 4k mintage.
Reverse of the 5 oz ingots above.

Hope you enjoyed these. I’ll be added a few more in the near future to this blog post.

Happy to add some more updates today on 6/4/20. My friend and fellow collector Brian R. has a very impressive Engelhard collections. Below are pictures of his Engelhard ingots.

And I thought I had a lot of P series wafflebacks!
Beautiful!
Massive collection of 10 oz Canadian with and nice 10 oz T.oz and 3 nice 3rd series 5 digit Engels.
Check out the waffling on bottom left and notice a picture frame characteristic on the middle row second from top. These are phenomenal.
Fantastic assortment of 5 oz class.
Just look at left top and bottom ingot. My goodness.
Couple of scarce 3 oz ingots!
Bad ass 20 oz Engels. The top one is a Zebra. Sic!
Reverse of the 20 oz Engels.
Stunning pair of MFR Engels from Brian R’s collection.
Recent addition of a stunning 5 oz Canadian 7th series variety. Love the lines and quality of the hallmark. Perfect stamp.
Very clean reverse. Great example.

Here are a trio of 5 oz class Engelhard MFR ingots shared by Prashant K.

These are fantastic!
Check out the rainbow toning on top left ingot!

Author: Vintage Poured Bars

New blogger with a passion for old poured silver bars. I'm a Bay Area native and self employed. Active buyer of vintage silver poured bars and occasional seller.

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