Month: September 2020

One of my all time favorites, Simmons is an iconic hallmark and well known among silver bar enthusiasts. The company operated out of Chicago, Illinois in the 60’s and 70’s. The made many varieties of bars from small 5 and 10 gram bars to 1 oz pressed commercial bars and a slew of beautiful poured bars from 5-14.5 oz class for the most part, but did some larger bars in their later years.

The hallmark changed later with Simmons to be a more industrial looking S. They began using Simmons Refco in their name. Some believe this is short for Simmons Refining Company. According to Allengelhard and I’m quoting them hear, “While one might assume  the “REFCO” designation would represent “Refining Company”, the acronym was in reality derived from Raymond Earl Friedman & Co. in New York, a financial services company specializing in commodities and futures contracts.” I have not seen provenance for either of these designations, but would love to know for sure.

There are several other “R” ingots that I’d like to highlight for fellow collectors. First up is a bar that was incorrectly labeled as Rainier for quite some time. We have discovered provenance that this is in fact Rainbow Vacuum, which is a product of Rexair (still in business today). It only came in 15 oz and we believe was given to customers and or internal employees as gifts and or rewards.

Next up is Rio Grande, which looks almost identical to the mold that Academy used for their “finger pour” bars. Rio Grande also did 1 oz commercial art bars. This is the only pour variety I have come across for them.

Rosario Mining is last up. These are really cool pieces. The company was based in New York with mine in Honduras. Note the NYH stamp and you will know the meaning behind it. These were presentation pieces given out to shareholders of the company. They did come in several varieties.

I decided to pair these two old hallmarks together, as they are cousins. If you look at the 5 and 10 oz mold on these, you will notice they fall into the what we call the Doyle’s Mold type. It has always been believed that many of these bars originated around Southern California, as this is where Doyle’s Mint was located. We recently got some provenance that proves Regold indeed was in Southern California. In fact, it was founded by John Rego, who was also the founder of JJSR. Regold was later mentioned in advertisements as formerly being J & J Smelting and Refining, which is really an amazing find in terms of the history. See the below pic with the back story.

Riverside Coin & Gold was in Riverside, CA, but not a lot of info available on them. RCG is the stamp within the state of CA hallmark. These are highly collectible and have become harder and harder to find.

RMMR old pours are thought to be the same company as RMM out of Salt Lake City, Utah, known for their extruded bars (same style as the Swiss of America and Kingsmen bars). These old RMMR pours are very well done and have tons of character. Here are a few examples for your viewing pleasure.

Here are a few killer examples from Brian R’s collection, which includes a very scarce 5 oz example.

This hallmark is a favorite of mine and among the more recognized hallmarks from the “R” box. The company operated in the early 1980s out of Anaheim, CA. They poured bars primarily in 5 and 10 oz class, but also did 1 oz silver rounds and bars, including rounds specifically made for Disney. Premiums are high on the bars if you can find them. Many have a double stamping phenomenon common for this maker.

Here is another fantastic 5 oz example from Brian R’s collection.

This was a company out of Hamburg, NY that operated in the early 80’s. It took me awhile to acquire this lone piece for the “Q” box. I have only come across a handful of 10 oz class examples. Check out this link from Silver Ingot Info, http://silveringotinfo.com/doku.php?id=q:quatre which has a few nice images of another 10 oz variety not commonly found. There is also a picture of an assay paper for a transaction occurring in 1981 which gives a good idea of their operational timeline. I have a Cascade Refining 10 and an IPM (Intermountain Precious Metals) 10 oz that use the exact mold and stamp pattern as this piece below. Check out my blog posts for those two refiners in earlier blogs to compare images. https://vintagepouredbar.com/2020/05/06/10-more-examples-of-c-hallmarks/ is the link for the Cascade Refining and https://vintagepouredbar.com/2020/07/12/intermountain-precious-metals/ is the link for the IPM bar.