2.88 oz 1869 Presentation Silver Bar to J. D. Minor
2″x 7/8″x 3/8″. 2.88 troy ounces, $3.77 Face Value
J. D. Minor (c1830-1911) is a bit of an enigma despite the important roll he played in Humboldt County and the State of Nevada. He held Humboldt county political positions from 1863 to 1870. The last four years (during the time of the ingot) he was County Collector. The county seat of Humboldt County during this time was Unionville, so he would have been at that town when this ingot was completed. In 1871 he became Secretary of State (1871-1878 less a short period in 1874-4) where he was involved in the building of the State Capital, the State Prison Wars, fulfilled the Nevada State Lottery of 1872 with funds going to build the State Institute for the Insane, etc.
The Buena Vista District was continuing to be a busy producer of silver when
J. D. Minor was presented with this silver ingot. The active mines included the Arizona, the Silver Mining Co. (yes, that’s the name!), the Pioneer Company, the Seminole Co. (of New York), the National Company with their 5 stamp mill on Buena Vista Creek, which was a gold producer – the only one in the district.
“Quite an impulse to mining was given in this district last year by the introduction of Chinese labor in the mills (10 stamp)…of the Arizona mine, thus greatly cheapening the cost of reduction…. The miners resisted at first, and drove the Chinese out of the district; but the later were immediately brought back…acknowledging that in using force they had committed an error in policy.”
” Humboldt has had a remarkably speculative and fluctuating
[Raymond, R.; Mineral Resources West of the Rocky Mountains, 1869, p118; 1870, pp187-188]
history. It has been the scene of higher hopes and more bitter disappointments than almost any other region.”
The J. D. Minor Ingot is just one of about four different Unionville ingots left in existence. It comes from a very historic pre-1870 period of mining in an exceptionally remote region of the West. Still remote today, it is an isolated ghost town in north central Nevada. Unionville’s place in Nevada history is secure, having produced significant quantities of gold and silver in the 1860’s alone. Interestingly, there are virtually no production records for the Buena Vista reported in Couch & Carpenter Nevada’s Metal and Mineral Production), a major omission.
[05/2017] https://holabirdamericana.liveauctiongroup.com/1869-Presentation-Silver-Bar-to-J-D-Minor_i27025213 ($6,050)