Hello, My name is Marco. I am new to this forum. Does anyone know anything about this silver bar. It is pure silver. It appears to have had a dark patina on it that has been cleaned up (unfortunately). There are a few things that strike me as odd about it. First I have never seen a bar like this. It appears to have been hammered and ground in areas. It is dated Christmas Day. Perhaps it was a Christmas gift from the RR? It is also number 500.... nice round number. If it is real then a nice round number may just have survived a melting pot. Anyway I paid a bit over spot, but figured it was a neat piece either way. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
The bar and the lettering look very crude, especially for a bar that is purported to be from one of the largest railroads of the era. How do you know that? Have you done a specific gravity test?
I would test it. From your pictures it almost looks like pewter. It's also very suspicious that the number like you mentioned is No. 500. You said you paid a little over spot, at 10 ounces that's ~$250. You could be out a lot of money.
I had it tested by a local jeweler. It is silver. It does look like pewter... especially in the photo. I think it is partly due to the patina that it "had".
It very well could be a fantasy piece.. and I knew that when I bought it. It seems like if someone is going to all this trouble they would have made several... and something would have turned up on the net. Thank you all for looking and posting.
Considering the UP went bankrupt for the first time in 1872 after brining Congressmen, I doubt they'd be giving out silver bars to anyone. Like was mentioned earlier, it also looks to be made of something else. Guy
Thank you for all your replies. I will take better pics of it in the daylight. First thing I thought when it arrived was that it was pewter too.
Start with some of the experts, such as Holabird-Kagin here: http://www.holabirdamericana.com/ goto the Archives and in each auction, there is an Index. You can look for Union Pacific and you can look for ingots. Also, you should spend some time with "How the West was Faked" here: http://www.fake-gold-bars.co.uk/ just to get an idea how common these forgeries are. The Union Pacific is a carrier. If these were meant as giveaways, they would be nicer. This is tricked up to look like an assay bar. But, as I said, the railroad had no interest in assaying or mining. Mostly, they issued paper... If you want to see some genuine silver bars of the period, here is a link to the Kagin side of the Holabird-Kagin enterprise. Don Kagin holds the only Ph.D. in numismatics and he earned it studing the Wild West. And -- no surprise -- the Union Pacific Railroad is online as well: http://www.uprr.com/ Search for "silver" and read about the silver dinner service from Abraham Lincoln's funeral train.
Welcome to c/t marcopolo. I don't know a lot about silver or gold bars, but I have studied counterstamped coins for a long time. There are a lot of fantasies in my field of interest, and this style of lettering done with individual punches looks much like the examples of fantasy counterstamps I'm familiar with. I think it's a fantasy as well, but still a neat piece to have.
Thank you all for your replies and advice. I don't know much about fantasy pieces. Are they usually done individually? I would think if they went through the trouble to make one they would have made many. Being hand struck I suppose anything is possible.
Yes, there would be many struck, but if that person flooded the market with 10 bars they would be worth less. I think he was hoping it would go for more than just slightly above spot.
Sometimes it's hard to say for certain whether it's a fantasy piece or not. Maybe you should look up to see if you can find info on the assay company, if you know what city it's from you should be able to find info. I agree that it looks fantasy but there's nothing wrong with having a unique fantasy piece. For all we now, some trailer park resident made a few for the fun of it!!
