1.11 oz Engraved Portland Gold Mining Co. Gold Presentation Ingot — Presented to Thomas B. Crowe.
1.5mm x 29mm x 51mm. The obverse is engraved in script: Portland Gold Mining Co. / First Gold / Extracted by new Mill / Victor Colo. / 1910. The reverse is similarly engraved with the name: Thos. B. Crowe, and ornate scrollwork. One corner has a hole, likely intended to facilitate use as a watch fob.
The Portland Gold Mining Company was incorporated on February 4th, 1894, between prospectors James Doyle and James F. Burns, in partnership with W.S. Stratton, who owned the nearby Independence mine. Doyle and Burns had discovered a vein of gold in 1891, on Battle Mountain near Victor, Colorado, in the Cripple Creek gold mining district, and named it after the city of Portland, Maine. Following the formation of the company, various legal challenges involving other mining companies in the region and between Portland’s partners itself, saw control of the Portland Gold Mining Company shift between the original founders and later buy-in partners by the name of Frank G. Peck and Irving Howbert. By 1910, when the current engraved gold piece was produced, Burns and Doyle were no longer influential with the company, and Stratton had died (1902), leaving the Portland Gold Mining Company largely managed by Howbert and Peck, the latter of which served as president of the company.
The current engraved presentation piece pertains to the first gold extracted from a new Mill constructed for Portland in 1910. Portland was a large mining company by that time with several mills. According to the February 11, 1912 Rocky Mountain News, Portland’s operations had generated a profit of $380,579.35 in 1911. A portion of this profit, after dividends to stakeholders were paid, was expended “in changing the Colorado City mill from chlorination to straight cyanide,” which the paper noted was “a decided step forward in the metallurgy of the [Cripple Creek] district…” The advancement in the precious metals extraction method was the work of Thomas B. Crowe, “a School of Mines graduate” and resident of Victor in Teller County, who developed the technique at Portland’s Colorado City mill previously. In March 1915, Crowe, still affiliated with the Portland Gold Mining Co., filed a patent for his new “Method of Extracting Precious Metals From Their Ores,” which was approved in September, 1916.
It is unknown which mill is specifically referenced by this presentation piece, although Peck and the other partners of the Portland Gold Mining Company chose to show their appreciation to Crowe for his invention, which had greatly increased their standing in the historic Battle Mountain gold mining region during the early 20th century. The engraved gold piece includes its original leather pouch, as presented to Crowe.
[10/2024] https://coins.ha.com/itm/ingots/engraved-portland-gold-mining-co-gold-presentation-ingot-presented-to-thomas-b-crowe-111-troy-ounces-15mm-x-29mm-x/a/63300-92006.s ($19,200)