Month: May 2020

Delta was a prolific refiner out of Canada who produced beautiful ingots in all sizes. They are known for their pour character, dimples, pour lines, etc. I have been buying these whenever I can find a reasonable price, as premiums are very high on Delta bars and deservedly so. I’m pleased to share some great examples from my collection below.

Not as rare as the 5 oz, but still particularly scarce are 10 oz class. Below are a few examples for your enjoyment.

I saved a few beauties for the following picture. The 5 oz above paired with an incredible 20 oz and 10 oz double hallmark variety.

Another share from my collector buddy, Brian R. He has several beautiful Delta pieces in his collection.

Adding a really amazing historical image from the Delta office of Keith Law who has contributed more information on this famous old Canadian company than anyone previously. The insights of a long-term employee are invaluable.

Drew Refining is another one of the many West Coast bars that I love. I’m a native Californian and have grown to love pieces from Drew. They were out of Berkeley, CA circa mid-late 70s. Not a lot of information is available on Drew, unfortunately. They are more commonly found in 10 oz, but even the 10s have become hard to find. The 5 oz are my favorite as you will see from the following pic.

Drew came in larger sizes, too, and not uncommon to find them in 25-100 oz. Here is a type 1 and type 2 10 oz.

If anyone gets more information on Drew pieces, please email me at silverblogger@vintagepouredbar.com

One of the first rare 5 oz ingots I ever bought was a Cincinnati piece and still to this day, it’s one of my top 10 favorite 5 oz pieces. These bars have become extremely hard to find and whenever they come on the market, they are snapped up quickly. You may hear the term “Tier 1 Bar” from time to time and not understand what this is. It means bars in this classification are the most rare and fetch the highest premiums. Cincinnati are in this class, particularly the 5 and 10 oz pieces. The 25+ oz Cinci bars also command excellent premiums, but not quite to the level of the 5s and 10s.

C & S are out of Denver, Colorado. Not a lot of information has surfaced on these, but they are definitely unique. I’ve been fortunate to have acquired several examples and the 5 oz class pieces are absolutely killer. Notice from the pictures that the mold and stampings are unique in terms of positioning.

I’ve been in love with these 10 oz Classic Coins bars since the first one I ever bought. I have nicknamed them “Chattanooga Bars.” I believe they only came in 10 oz class and wish I knew more about them. My assumption is that they were a local business/coin shop in the area and dabble in poured bars for awhile. The style is consistent with mid-late 70s on some of the examples and maybe early 80’s on others. I’ll detail in the photos below.

Note the top two molds seem to be a bit different than the bottom two, namely the height. I have not measured, but to the naked eye, you can see this. Top bar is more crude and odd weight, whereas the bottom ingot is more refined. See reverse pics below.

Anything made by Consolidated Mines & Metals is ultra high premium. These are pieces sought out by the most astute collectors. They came in 1, 5, 10, 25, Kilo, 50, and 100 oz. The company started in 1975 and was based out of San Francisco. The hallmark is one of the cooler hallmarks you will come across. Incredible detail and craftsmanship in the production of these ingots.

Another non serial example comes from regular contributor to this blog, Brian R. It was acquired from the same collector as my non serial above, so they share similar history.

The 1 oz pressed Consolidated Mines and Metals are very scarce, even with the estimated 1,000 made, there are very few survivors. I’m proud to own a set of 5 sequential plus a 6th piece that’s not part of the set. See pics below. They came with assay paper, which I have for all of them.

Happy to share a few amazing pieces from the collection of fellow collector and regular contributor to this site, Prashant K. Thanks again for the share of these great pieces below. First up is a very nice 10 oz example.

Next is another example from Prashant’s collection, a non serial 5 oz class.

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.

I started this blog as a resource for those looking to learn more about vintage ingots. It’s such a vast niche within the metals world, and I wish I had this type of resource available when I had gotten started in the hobby. I hope those that visit this site will be able to come back time and time again to use the information as a learning tool. I have created tags, so that you can use the search box over time to find exactly what you are looking for on this site. Your feedback is always welcome, by the way. You may have noticed from past postings, that I don’t generally talk about valuations, but I may touch on that in more detail soon. I can also always be reached with questions about values at silverblogger@vintagepouredbar.com. Without further ado, here are some great 10 oz examples and 5 oz examples from the “C” box.

Colonial 10 oz class thought to have been made by The Colonial Mint. You may recognized the name as they did some killer 1 oz commercial art bars back in the day with an Eagle Hallmark. Estimated era on these late 70’s to early eighties. I have only seen these in 10 oz class.

Cascade Refining is from Utah and one of my favorites. Love the look of this bar with the unique cursive style stamp. #032883 signifies the date of the bar, so this was March of 1983. Cascade was done in 5 oz, 10 oz, and 25 oz ingots, often odd weights. 25s are most common and 5’s are exceptionally rare and very high premium. The 10’s have appreciated quite a bit these last few years.

Certified Mint is another I have only seen in 10 oz class. Recent assay paper examples show this refiner operating out of Phoenix, AZ in the early to mid 70s.

CRE is an interesting piece. The company was Commodity Resource and Environmental out of Southern California, which started as a silver recovery company in 1980 and still in business today. I’ve come across 5 or so of these over the years. Not a common vintage bar by any means.

Capital Metals out of Baltimore, Maryland is a neat piece. These are not uncommon, but carry nice premiums. This is what I call a value vintage buy, as you can still get these without breaking the bank, but they will appreciate. I’m trying to add more to the collection. If you are lucky another to find with with a Deak counterstamp, you are in the money. These are very high premium varieties. They primarily are found in 10 oz poured class, but there is a 10 oz extruded version and also 25+ oz class poured variety.

Columbus Precious Metals is out of Columbus, Ohio and uses the same mold as Jackson Precious Metals (JPM), which is more commonly found. Notable examples of these bars are Allen’s Coin Shop, Silver Towne, Bache, Xenia Coin Shop, Lexington Silver Shop, and Pilloli’s Youngstown, Ohio. I am missing the Pilloli’s piece, so let me know if you see one for sale :)!

Confederate Mining Company 5 oz class. Made in 1981, in stylish button variety. These have become next to impossible to find. They came in 5, 10 and 25 oz class. They are ultra high premium if you do find one for sale. Not a lot known about the company, but I did track down a company in South Carolina called Confederate Mining Company that is still in business today.

Continental Coins and Currency Company out of Southern California. This 76′ bar is pretty cool and I’ve come across maybe 8 of them ever. I believe this to be the same Continental Coin that you have seen stamped as CC counter stamped on the W.H. Foster extruded 10 oz bar, and the 10 oz US Assay pressed bar out of San Francisco in the early 80s. I’d like to find out definitively, but this is my hunch.

Coin Shack 5 oz. This is one of my top 5 rarest 5 oz pieces. The company I believe is affiliated with Doyle’s Mint and was founded in 1969. They did business out of Hemet, CA. This style of mold is known as the “Doyles” mold an there is a set that is very tough to complete in this variety, including Regold, RCG (Riverside Coin and Gold), Doyle’s Mint, Omega (M&B Mining), and Nevada Coin Shop to name some of the more notable in the group.

Circle City 5 oz class. More rare in 5 oz versus 10 oz. These were done out of Arizona. Cool trapezoidal shape and one of the more unique shapes as far as ingots go. I have a 10 oz example, as well. It’s the same shape and look.

Here’s one you will rarely see, a 10 oz Casper courtesy of my buddy Brian R., who is a regular contributor. Thanks for sharing your collection buddy!

When I started my vintage journey about 6 years back, California Crown Mint was among the early vintage pieces I acquired. Otherwise knows as CCM, these ingots were produced in higher volume, but disappeared during the “Great Melt.” Their commonly found in kit kat style, predominately 5 and 10 oz, but they also did 25-100 oz which are less commonly found these days. They have a great hallmark of a crown with the initials M and G in the crown. For those who don’t know, these are the initials of the former President of CCM, Michael Graham. The company began in 1980 and put out a lot of bars their first few years. Not much information can be found after this period of time. One of my favorite CCM pieces is an ultra rare poured 10 oz class bar. I’ve come across 3 in all my time collecting. CCM also made bars for various resellers as you can see by the example below, DGSE (Dallas Gold and Silver Exchange). The serial number also happens to be the date the ingots were made, so in the case of the 10 oz bar pictured, the #12781 signifies December 7th, 1981. Pretty cool.

Just something about this hallmark, made me want to kick off the “C” box with Crown Metals. Their signature Crown stamp is among the best out there in my opinion. Simple, yet edgy. It’s a crown fit for a King. They are out of Canada (I believe Ontario), and are a scrap metals company that no longer pours ingots. Timeframe on these by appearance, looks to be early 80s give or take a few years. They are rarely found anymore, but more commonly found in 5 oz class. The other sizes that have come up are 25 oz, which are very very rare. Enjoy the pictures below.

Very excited to share an example that was sent to me by my buddy Brian R., who acquired a rare 25 double hallmarked Crown Metals ingot recently. Stunning piece.