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California Assay Office Memorandum Possibly for Comstock Silver 1871 [166943]

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Mining Start Price:100.00 USD Estimated At:200.00 - 400.00 USD
California Assay Office Memorandum Possibly for Comstock Silver  1871  [166943]

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This is the rare form for this San Francisco assay office. California Assay Office, No. 512 California Street, J.A. Mars, Assayer (R.H. Lawrence crossed out). Dated Nov. 21, 1871. Memorandum of Assay of "Sample of Ore" No. 2 deposited by W.H. Patterson, Esq. Assayed for silver and gold, but the sample contained only silver, 102 oz. per ton. Signed by J.A. Mars. 9.75 x 7.75" Folds. Where was this ore from? W.H. Patterson was a lawyer in the firm Patterson & Stow, 513 Jackson St. according to the 1871 SF directory. W.W. Stow, his partner and brother-in-law, was a very prominent railroad lawyer. According to the Annual Mining Review & Stock Ledger (1876), Patterson was at one time a trustee for the Mariposa Land & Mining Co. and both president and trustee for the Leviathan Mine in Gold Hill, Nevada. The fact that this ore sample is high-grade silver would point to a Nevada source. Therefore, it is possible this assay was for a Comstock Lode sample, perhaps even from the Leviathan. The Leviathan was staked in 1863 on the East Ledge, 1,000 feet in front and parallel to the Comstock Lode, opposite the Belcher and Crown Point Mines. The East Ledge (and this mine) were actively developed in 1874 when the mine was taken over by a San Francisco corporation. Perhaps Patterson was testing samples of a property he would later run? The address of this assay office is the same as George E. Rogers, successor to G. W. Bell, and must have passed to Lawrence and Mars sometime around 1870. The California Assay Office at 512 California Street was originally managed by H.H. Lawrence, with J.A. Mars as the assayer. Mars bought out Lawrence in mid-1871 and ran the assay office for a while thereafter. San Francisco California Franklin Collection