Another great West Coast bar that has become highly sought after with strong premium growth over the last several years are ingots made by Spokane Bullion Company. They operated for a short time in the early 80s out of Spokane, WA (1980-1984). Their ingots came in sizes ranging from 5 oz to 50+ oz class. I just recently scored my first example, which is an earlier version of the bar with low estimated mintage. A great source for this particular bar is allengelhard.com where they have put together a nice variety of images from this old refiner.
I’ve a few incredible pieces to share from Prashant K’s collection below. Again, thank you to fellow collectors who are sharing pics with the community. It’s really great to see the different and highly scarce varieties of some of these old refiners.
Vintage Silver Bars 
i was fortunate and had opportunity to be a customer of Continental Coin Corporation of Van Nuys California when i was a teenager and then about 19 years old worked at their retail/wholesale showroom.notice the cleaver halmark if “CC” resembling the reeded edge of two couns to represent “continental coin”I believe the earlier “United States Silver corp”, “United States Gold and Silver corp” were companies by the same owner,by the time i worked for them they had what they described as “the largest private Mint west of the Mississippi river”by that time i had one trip to their refinery and minting facility in Newbury park CA (ventura county)they used machinery formerly aluminum extrusion machinesTwo men hoisted with chain assisted tongs and poured fine silver into a large cylindrical upright mold then while no longer liquid but massively hot and cherry red dumped the ingot then transfered it into the hydraulic extrusion press, it squeezed out the somewhat rectangular or posibly slightly trapezoid profile long extrusion from which exact length 100 tOz. Bars were made i presume then the weight was checked and hydraulic press marked the barswhen i worked for them approx 1990 they also did 1oz rounds. As i recall premium was .60 over spot retail and for dealers it was only .20 over spot they also produced a series called California Gold that they bought and sold on par with maple leaf and eagles it was .9999 fine gold and special legislation of the state made it sales tax exempt and they had 1/1/, 1/4, half and 1 ounce coinsi commend you for organizing and sharing your memories of personal and historic times,I am inspired to do the same,,if im not a pest or encroaching might tell more of my own precious metals career history as i still seek information about Handy and Harmon, the company i was with later purchased lots of solid karat gold tubing and we used CNC lathes making bucket loads of gold wedding bands 5 days a week.enouhh of my ramblings.thank you again for sharing sincerley Joseph Lieberman Thousand Oaks, California USA 02/04/2026
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This is really great history and I love to hear the stories. Thank you so much for sharing this information. Did you save any documentation or images from the business at that time? These have become relics of the old industry and we appreciate the opportunity to learn more. How long did you work for CC and H&H?
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