3.60 oz International Mill Silver Ingot. Clear Creek County, Colorado, ca. 1870, Face Value: $3.91
A crisp, trapezoidal ingot with imprints on two long sides. One side reads: INT. MILL. Oz 3.60, and the other long side is imprinted with S841F. $3.91. The surfaces are moderately toned.
The International Mill was an operation in Clear Creek County near Georgetown that milled the ores from the International Mine. Discovered in the late 1860s, it was in full production in 1870, when it produced $25,000 in silver bullion, according to Wallihan in the Colorado Gazetteer, published in 1871 (p. 433, Appendix).
In a search of western directories from 1867-1875, which list all of the operational quartz mills in the western states, the only mill with the International name was the Clear Creek, Colorado mill, and this mill was for the silver mine of the same name.
This silver ingot is of high quality and construction, typical of others from the period, and was possibly used as an exhibition ingot in one of the many Colorado expositions.
From The Kagin Reference Collection of Frontier Ingots.
[08/2006] https://coins.ha.com/itm/ingots/international-mill-silver-ingot-clear-creek-county-colorado-ca-1870-a-crisp-trapezoidal-ingot-with-imprints-on-two-lon/a/414-2576.s ($7,475)
6.21 oz, $7.99 Silver Ingot. 19th Century Unmarked.
Imprinted on the top only, with Oz 6.21 / S996F. / $7.99. It has the typical early trapezoidal form of 1880’s period, and high silver content, but has no mine name attached. The four back corners are beveled, probably where minute assay chips were taken. Lovely gray-lilac patina.
From The Kagin Reference Collection of Frontier Ingots.
After close inspection under 10x loupe, we believe this ingot to directly punch-link match to the Int Mill ingot from Colorado. This previously unidentified ingot has finally been attributed.
Although without having both bars in hand or high-resolution photography of the International Mill example it’s difficult to say with 100% certainty, after careful study and comparison up close, everything appears to line up exactly including the punches in common, the style, the words used, and their placement. Our current assessment is precisely that the $7.99 bar comes from International Mill in Georgetown Colorado! The dollar per oz value of silver matches extremely closely as well which places them in the same time period given the fluctuations of the price of silver over the years.