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Gould & Curry Silver Mining Co. Check Issued to Assayer Conrad Wiegand [199182]

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Mining Start Price:50.00 USD Estimated At:100.00 - 200.00 USD
Gould & Curry Silver Mining Co. Check Issued to Assayer Conrad Wiegand [199182]
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Bank of Cal. 1870 check issued to C. Wiegand & Co. Signed by CC Batterman as mine superintendent. Signed on the back for Wiegand. Rare RN-B17b revenue imprint. Wiegand worked for the San Francisco Mint in the Gold Rush. He left that job and came to the Comstock in territorial years. He opened his first Comstock office in 1865 in Gold Hill. Wiegand's main concern was for the plight of the small miner and businessman, many of whom were overrun by big business interests. The press, controlled in large part by the Bank of California, suggested Wiegand was crazy and some of the public bought into the idea, though those that knew him said otherwise. In early 1870, Wiegand began publication of the Peoples Tribune, a newspaper he started to further moral issues with the public, including the exposure of fraud and scandalous activity on the Comstock. Always the inventor, as were other members of his family, Wiegand patented a new process for slimes and tailings reduction machinery in 1874. A few years later he was involved in a new mercury and silver separation process. In the mid to late 1870’s Wiegand taught assaying classes in Virginia City that included blowpipe analyses and mineralogy. Wiegand hung himself on June 14, 1880 in his office. Though there were injuries to the body and blood was found in unusual places in his office, his death was ruled a suicide by the Storey County Coroner. He was suffering serious debt, though his wife felt it was under control. He also suffered fits of what he himself considered insanity, and he feared that mental condition as an ultimate fate at old age.
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Date: 1870
Country (if not USA):
State: Nevada
City: Virginia City
Provenance: