16.51 oz ND. Gould & Curry Silver Mining Co. (Virginia City, Nev.) Gold & silver refined assay bar, #875
Fantasy (ca. 1965?) Gould & Curry Silver Mining Co. Ingot. 16.51 Ounces. No. 875.
39.0 mm x 84.5 mm x 11.0 mm. 512 grams. Tested as 92.52% Ag, 2.24% Au, 4.22% Zn, 0.671% Cu, 0.358% Pb. Face marked with GOULD & CURRY SILVER MINING CO. logotype at center, GOULD & CURRY arched above straight second line; No. 875 at upper left corner; Oz. 16.51 at upper right corner; mixed metal alloy description below in two lines with total value of $27.04 near lower center: .021 gold fineness equaling $7.17 in value, .931 silver fineness equaling $19.87 in value. Upper left corner of face truncated for an “assay bite,” circular assay drill mark below serial number. Lower face unfinished and rough, serial number No. 875 punched near upper left. Darkly toned with a few scattered marks.
A well provenanced Franklin Hoard ingot that appeared in a group of six similarly numbered bars in June 1972. With serial numbers ranging from 875 to 885, each in the group was similar in size and layout. They seem to imitate a few Gould and Curry ingots that predate 1950, one of which was published in The Numismatist in 1917. An early Gould and Curry ingot with serial No. 2, showing this layout but different punches, a different style of pour and finish, and an assay drill mark on the back instead of the face, was acquired by John J. Ford, Jr. from a non-numismatic Connecticut source in whose family it had been documented since the 1940s; that ingot brought $27,600 in the Ford XXI sale of October 2007. The ingots of the 880 series appear to have been made from a sterling silver base (the silver content of this ingot, despite the .931 fineness on the face, is almost exactly sterling .925) copying that somewhat older type.
This ingot is perhaps the best provenanced and most published of the group, appearing in Moulton’s John J. Ford, Jr. and The Franklin Hoard on p. 194 and p. 626, among other references in that volume.
Provenance: From the Collection of Dr. James B. Gilbert, MD. Earlier from NASCA’s sale of the Allan Lee Scott Collection, April 1980, lot 2443. Earlier, “excavated with the aid of a metal detector in the basement of a Virginia City, Nevada house;” Paul Franklin to John J. Ford, Jr., July 1972; Ford to Jon Hanson of New Netherlands Coin Company, August 1973; unknown collector (NASCA consignor), February 1977.
83×39 x 16mm. 16.51 Ozs. (7929.60 grains). Gold .021 Fine, Silver .931 Fine; Gold $7.17, Silver $19.87 (total $27.04). (Photo) ($4,000-Up)
Excavated with the aid of a metal detector in the basement of a Virginia City, Nevada, house (the Comstock Lode area). Purchased in luly, 1972 In/ John /. Ford, Jr.; sold to Hanson, 813/73; sold by Hanson to our present consignor 2/77, at the N.A.S.C. Convention, Los Angeles. “No. 875” punched into upper left reverse as well as on obverse.
[04/1980] https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=511370&AuctionId=521430
15.03 oz Nevada. Undated (ca. 1860-1866) Gould & Curry Silver Mining Company. $23.84 Mixed Metal Ingot
Extremely Fine, two small conical depressions from later assay drill tests. Uniface rectangular mixed metal ingot, inscriptions on the uppermost face, only, accomplished in a combination of prepared and individual punches, and reading: No. 877 / OZ 15.03 / GOULD & CURRY / SILVER MINING CO / GOLD .019‘/2 VALUE $6.06 / $23.84 (the combined values of the gold and silver in the bar) / SILVER .915 VALUE $17.78. Four edges and back blank. Very rare: only eight Gould & Curry ingots were discovered in 1972, underneath what had been the floor of a Virginia City saloon. All of them, including this piece, were unparted ingots.
[06/1997] https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/auctionlots?AucCoId=3&AuctionId=516717