I have a few more very rare and unique pieces from Rosario Mining to share today. I shared a 4 oz example in my “Notable R Hallmarks” post some time back. Rosario mined the Mochito Mine in Honduras (the H in the NYH stamp). Most of their rectangular shaped ingots were presentation pieces to shareholders, but these below, I believe were done in very limited capacity, perhaps for employees, but hard to say for sure. Enjoy the pics.
Sunshine Minting is typically associated with modern bullion, however, most don’t know that they have been around since 1979. The organization was founded in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho in 1979 and have since grown into a full-service leader in silver and gold bullion products. I have acquired two vintage sub 5 oz pieces that are interesting examples. Both have the pick and shovel hallmark on the obverse, which is a pillow top style. One is serialized and one is not. My theory is the first run was serialized and continued the run with non serialized later. The reverse is flat with weight and purity. See pics below for comparison.
I have two more beautiful examples that were just shared by fellow collector Jon M. Thank you for your support and help with these additional images!
I did a previous write up on this old refiner out of Anaheim, CA. I’ve been able to acquire a few sub 3 oz pieces. Enjoy the pics.
Here is another slightly different variety that Jon M. was nice enough to share with the community here.
100 gram ingots are some of my favorite to collect and its hard to talk about 100 gram without mention of Dorfman Bankers London ingots. These are fantastic in hand and beautifully done. They came with a blue presentation box, which I have one in my collection with that I’ll share shortly. First, a bit of history on this maker.
Sir Lloyd Dorfman whom these ingots are named after, founded Travelex (now a division of Finablr) the largest foreign exchange retailer in the world. He got his start in 1976 opening a small foreign currency exchange business in Central London. His firm was merged into Travelex in the mid 80s. These ingots appear to be late 70s/early 80s era. Here are examples from my collection.
I did a previous post on Silverfarm showing a few 10 oz examples. Again, they operated out of San Francisco circa 1970s. For those who have not seen their 1 oz, pieces, I have a few in the collection that I wanted to share. These are unique chunky 1 oz pieces that have hallmark on obverse and lot number on the back.
Montana Gold and Silver are another well known refiner that operated out of Helena, Montana from 1959 until 1978 based on public records. The premiums have grown dramatically on ingots from this refiner. Like the W.H. Foster Eagle hallmark, the Montana Eagle as it’s sometimes called, is also HOT! These pieces came in 1 to 25 oz variety. The larger pours have eluded me over the years and now out of my budget :). I’m luck to have put together a handful of the 1 oz pieces, however. They came in two types as you can see below.
For more information on Montana Gold and Silver, visit silveringotinfo.com that has some great images of other varieties rarely seen. Here is the link:
I did a brief post on Van Aken back on 10/7/20. I wanted to share images of the 1 oz pours that are nearly identical in appearance to the OIO 1 oz pours. There was a Van Aken out of Ohio, but there is not a lot of information that has been discovered on these. Frankly, they are some of the coolest old pours that I have in my collection. You never see these. If you have more information on these, please feel free to leave a note on the blog. Thank you.
I previously featured my 5 oz LSon under the notable “L” refiners. Those of you who have read my previous blog posts know I’m a big fan of West Coast ingots. Lawrence and Sons were out of Mohave, CA circa 70s era and they are very tough pieces to come by. Below is a photo of my 1, 2, and 3 oz pieces. If I had to rank scarcity of these pieces, I’d say the 3 and 5 are more often found than the 1 and 2 oz. The 2 oz is the rarest based on my experience having almost never seen them.
Most of you that follow my collection know that I have a soft spot for Omega pieces. Again, if you missed the first blog post, you can find it in the archives or by doing a keyword search. This was an old refiner out of Las Vegas in early to mid 70s. These ingots were once very accessible in the market, but today seem to be found mainly in 10 oz second generation, although a small hoard of 3 oz second gen pieces was recently found. Even so, premiums are high on these smalls, particularly gen 1 and pieces with oddities like double stamps or small fonts, etc. Enjoy these pics.
Here are a few more 1 oz examples shared by Jon M., who is becoming a regular contributor now. Thanks again.
And some two oz pieces for your viewing below:
A nice mix of various 3 oz varieties below:
Although, PPM is considered common vintage on their second gen 5 and 10 oz pieces, the 1 oz pieces are no longer that common. As silver smalls has exploded in the collectible community, poured 1 oz pieces are heavily sought after. PPM had two versions of the 1 oz pours, a type 1 and 2. The type 1 is much more common, but the type 2 is a trapezoidal shape that appears larger at first glance, but weight is also 1 oz. These are rare an in my estimation, you will find 8-10 regular pours before seeing a trapezoid PPM.
It took me years to accumulate this many examples.
Vintage Silver Bars 