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South Standard Mining Co. Stock Certificate

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Mining Start Price:250.00 USD Estimated At:500.00 - 1,500.00 USD
South Standard Mining Co. Stock Certificate
SOLD
350.00USDto D******a+ buyer's premium (78.75)
This item SOLD at 2015 Apr 10 @ 14:39UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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Location: Bodie Mining District. Inc. Sept. 13, 1877. Uncancelled, no. 325, issued to James Coffin, Trustee, 100 shares, signed by Walesche Palmer, president and C. A. Sankey, secretary, August 1878. Printed by Britton & Rey, SF. Allegorical woman next to fancy company logo. Four assessment stamps on reverse. Folds (with minor separation) and light soiling. A rare certificate from this very important Bodie mine.



Several financially backed companies acquired claims at Bodie, but by 1868 they had abandoned their mines along with the district's first two stamp mills.



Bleak terrain and meager returns prevented even the glimmer of gold from attracting much interest, and Bodie District languished for the next seven years, yielding only enough yellow metal to tempt a few hopeful prospectors and sustain a scattering of destitute miners. Some steadfast inhabitants washed placer gravel, while the most hearty drove tunnels or sunk shafts to follow low-grade quartz veins into the earth. Then in 1875, a mine called the Bunker Hill caved, exposing an ore body that attracted San Francisco speculators. One group of capitalists purchased the claim and organized a company that set up industrial-scale mining. Their gamble paid off. The Standard Company produced $784,523 in gold and silver bullion during 1877 and rewarded stockholders with four consecutive monthly dividends.



The company's good luck sent shock waves through the mining world and attracted hundreds of fortune seekers. The newcomers built a scruffy, ramshackle town while distant speculators organized companies and sold stock to eager investors. Two bonanza veins in the Bodie Mine, followed by the discovery of the incredibly rich Fortuna Lode and the vast Main Standard Ledge, convinced stockholders and hopeful arrivals that opportunity awaited. Based on overoptimistic reporting, everybody believed that Bodie's ore sprang from a colossal vein, similar to the Comstock's Big Bonanza. This lode, experts theorized, stretched two miles from Bodie Bluff, passed through High Peak and Silver Hill, then pinched out somewhere below Queen Bee Hill. Although most Bodie mines had yet to produce profitable ore, investors from San Francisco to New York City poured money into companies that spent with abandon to reach greater depths. By late 1878, twenty-two mines sported expensive steam-powered hoisting machinery to bring riches to the surface, and the booming town's startup newspaper cried: "Ho for Bodie!"2



City: Bodie
State: California,
Date: 1878

FHWAC#: 25273