1879 4.75 oz $47.5 Mixed Metal Ingot from Bulwer Mine
Bulwer Mine: Souvenir Silver and Gold Ingot with a Storied Past
2.25″ x .75″ x .5″ [56mm x 18mm x 14mm] solid silver/gold ingot. It is inscribed on the top: “Bulwer Mine 4 3/4 Ounces Value $47.50”. The front & back sloping sides are inscribed: “Presented by/ Mr. John F. Boyd./ to/ Mrs. Philipp [sic] Deidesheimer/ April 1879” and “Result of working 400 pounds Ore/ unassorted, taken from 1000 tons/ now being worked at Bodie Mill.” The bottom and end panels are unmarked.
The value of $47.50 for this weight indicates a high presence of gold in the alloy. An x-ray fluorescence test indicates a purity of around 44.5% gold and 54.3% silver, with traces of copper and lead. With around two ounces of gold and a market price in 1879 of $20.67 per ounce, the value assigned by the producer is in line with the metal mixture. Many of the lodes in Northern California produced heavy mixtures of gold and silver, which were refined further by assayers.
Philip Deidesheimer (1832-1906)
He was a German-born mining engineer who emigrated to the United States in 1852. He worked the California gold fields for several years before being hired as a technical advisor by W. F. Babcock, a trustee of the Ophir Mine, part of the Comstock Lode in Nevada. He was promoted to mine superintendent of the Ophir Mine in 1875, but speculated in mining stocks and declared bankruptcy in 1878. He continued to design and supervise mine construction at the Hope Mill in Montana and at the Young America Mine in Sierra City, California. His 20% stake in that mine made him a rich man. The Bulwer Mine was located in Jefferson County, Montana. Bodie, California was a gold & silver boom town in the 1877-1882 period and is a historic site.
He was the Comstock inventor of the square-set timber system, made deep hardrock mining a possibility throughout the world, thereby becoming a respected mining engineer. Interestingly he also refused to patent his invention. Deidesheimer was born to Jewish parents in Darmstadt, Hesse in 1832 before German unification. He attended the prestigious Freiburg School of Mines. At nineteen, the young mining engineer traveled to the California gold fields to work for several years. Eventually, he addressed one of the Comstock’s most critical needs.
By 1860, miners found the Comstock Lode was dozens of feet wide in some places making it impossible for timbers to support caverns cleared of gold and silver ore. Seeking a solution, Ophir Mine director W. F. Babcock summoned Deidesheimer to Virginia City. The engineer arrived in November 1860. After about a month, he developed the famed square-set timber method.
With thick timbers of regular dimensions, carpenters could assemble Deidesheimer’s series of cubes in any direction to support every underground situation. Unfortunately, he failed to patent his invention, and other mines adopted the system without payment. Deidesheimer’s square-set timbers became an international standard for the next fifty years.
Because Deidesheimer’s name commanded respect, mines quickly employed him. Unprofitable properties exploited his credibility to boost stock prices, and ultimately, he failed economically. He eventually relocated to Sierra City, California, where he continued as a mine supervisor. Deidesheimer died in 1916. (See: http://www.onv-dev.duffion.com/articles/philipp-deidesheimer)
We have seen similar souvenir ingots sold at auction. All are rare and highly coveted but, given the story behind it and the extensive engraved inscription, this may be the best one known.
John F. Boyd and The Standard Consolidated Mining Company
An important mining property to change hands during Bodie’s dull years in the 1860s and
early 1870s was the Bunker Hill-Bullion set of claims. O.G. Leach, E. Donahue, and L.H.
Dearborn staked the Bunker Hill claim in July 1861. In 1874, the property was in the hands of
William O’Hara, an African-American who lived in Aurora. That year, he leased and then sold
the Bunker Hill-Bullion to Peter Eshington and Louis Lockberg for $8,000. They drove a shaft
120 feet into Bodie Bluff and found a rich orebody. Crushing their ore in an arrastra on Rough
Creek five miles to the northwest, they were able to produce $37,000 worth of gold in two
seasons. With that showing, George Story bonded the property for Daniel and Seth Cook of San Francisco, who bought the Bunker Hill-Bullion in September 1876 for $67,000. The Cooks then incorporated the Standard Gold Mining Company on 11 April 1877 with Daniel Cook as
president, John F. Boyd as vice president, William Willis as secretary, and the Nevada Bank of
San Francisco as treasurer.
Ref: HISTORIC AMERICAN ENGINEERING RECORD, STANDARD GOLD MILL (Bodie Gold Mill), Bodie State Park, California HAER No. CA-299; https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/master/pnp/habshaer/ca/ca3000/ca3098/data/ca3098data.pdf
John F. Boyd was also on the board of directors of the Garibaldi Mining Company in 1875. John Boyd and brothers Seth and Daniel Cook came to California in the 1850’s to find their fortunes in the gold mines of the West, eventually investing in the Bodie Bonanza and securing their fortunes. John Boyd went on to marry Louise Arner Cook, their niece, and settled at Maple Lawn in San Rafael.
[2025/04] https://historical.ha.com/itm/western-expansion/goldrush/bulwer-mine-souvenir-silver-and-gold-ingot-with-a-storied-past/a/6318-43218.s ($71,875)