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Carson City (Mint) Assay Office Bullion Deposit Group (3) [170602]

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:250.00 USD Estimated At:500.00 - 800.00 USD
Carson City (Mint) Assay Office Bullion Deposit Group (3)    [170602]

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This is an interesting lot for the advanced Carson City collector. Three very different bullion deposits at the CC Mint. These show the variety of deposits that can come into any major US Mint or Assay Office facility, in this case from local merchants, bankers, or miners wishing to convert metals – in whatever form – into money. And they need the Mint to do it.
A. Jan. 22, 1900 deposit of a small dore ingot of mixed fineness, 393 fine silver and 487 fine gold deposited by Herman Davis. This is an obvious dore ingot of mixed metal from a mine that is probably listed as a gold mine, but the ores have a very high silver content. This dore bar had some substantial impurity or impurities, possibly copper, which was rarely ever noted. Copper, in example, was easy to remove from a melt by the use of specific fluxes, and our masker here did not know how to remove the impurities from the melt, so the resultant gold plus silver is only 880 fine. As an example, mines of Bodie produced ores of about 8:1 gold to silver, though it could vary greatly. Mines of the Comstock varied widely, except the major mines’ deep ores usually ran 10-20:1 silver to gold. The ratio was much higher in gold near the surface.
B. A large amalgum “ingot” of 667 ounces, a “bar” that was created from the collection of gold and silver dust after the ores went through a stamp mill and were collected on the mercury table and trap below the stamps. Here, the mining company was well adept at removing the mercury, with the resultant bar 938 fine silver and 048 fine gold. This is also average for a classic Comstock ingot from any of the major companies for their dore bars. The lesson here – is that it is an amalgum bar, not a dore bar.
C. A 129 ounce amalgum “bar” of mixed fineness made by someone who was not well adept at removing mercury from the amalgum, so the form notes a deduction for the mercury at the bottom left corner..
Carson City Nevada Franklin Collection