Coca Cola 75th anniversary Youngstown silver art bar.

Hello,
First time posting on these boards....I collect silver bullion, mainly older art bars and rounds. Recently I came across a Coca Cola art bar from the Youngstown plant with the "Old Mill" on the front. I searched the internet through and through but can`t find any info on the rarity of this bar or even a picture. I know it`s not one of the common Coke bars, but other than that I have no clue. Any info would be greatly appreciated.

 

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Nice, welcome there are Art Bar collectors that will love to spend time talking to you.
Welcome to CT.

 

coca cola bar

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hey my name is David ...........edit

 

sorry david. i dont want to make it hard for you to get this piece, but i would suggest that Evom777 get more information on this before selling with no idea. we all know that coke and pepsi items are collectibles.

 

Also note the Coin Talk Rules about this..

David you may also wish to remove your email address from the public forums to avoid attracting spammers that can pick up your email address here.

 

I saw your post thru google. I am asisting my widowed sister liquidate some collections of her husband's. One collection is about 80 silver and some 20 bronge bars as you describe. If you have fournd anyone with info on pricing etc. I would greatly appreciate your help.

 

Hey you're right again Krispy, WTG!!

 

Welcome to CT. Post a picture of it when you can .

 

Welcome to CT! Glad to see another who is into the silver art bars! I'm personally into the late 60's and early-mid 70's art bars. I have seen coca cola bars on ebay but have no idea their specific worth. Would love to see some pictures!

 

I am afraid I have unknowingly violated several rules in my first post. This may not be the proper venue, for me.

 

Answer on Youngstown Coca-Cola Ingot

Evom777,
The Youngstown, Ohio ingot issued in 1981 was made for the employees at the Coca-Cola bottler by the World Wide Mint. This one was made toward the end of the time period for Coca-Cola ingots and was not made available to the public/collectors. I found out that during this time there were about 200 employees at the bottler and these ingots were given to them at their 75th Anniversary dinner (in 1981). There might have been more than 200 issued, but so far, serial number above 200 have not been seen. Let me know if you have any additional questions and I will try to help.

 

Well it only took a year, and three different thread resurrections, but the mystery of the coca cola art bar has finally been solved. I, for one, will sleep well tonight.

 

*YAWN* Wake me when it's over!

 

Thanks for the info.

I just happen to have one of these. It probably has a high attrition as well.

Mine is in my Coke collection which is part of my soft drinks collection. The next time I get to the collection I'll check for a serial number.

 

Pawn Stars this week had a customer come in with 18, 1 oz. silver, art bars from the 70s and 80s, and there was 1 of these Coke bars in the bunch. He recieved melt value for them, no premium.

 

There's a good chance it will be melted too.

That's one less available of a really great and really scarce collectible.

Everybody is too busy with a large cent collection or something to worry about modern coins and medals that just keep getting destroyed. The difference this time is two fold. One, none of many of these things got saved in the first place and two, thisa has been going on for nearly half a century.

The day will come when most of the rarest things came from the last half of the 20th century. We have a throw away mentality and everyone considers anything current to be mere junk.

 

However, in the long run we are talking about a 1 oz silver bullion bar. I could see it having collectible premiums if it were made by someone famous like Paul Revere Silversmiths.

The collectibility of these items would depend on how in demand they truly are. I see them at coin shows all the time, small mark up over spot, nothing more.

Not much different than the bullion ASE, at the end of the day, you have 1 oz. of pure silver.

 

Let me put it this way then. If they really made fewer than a couple hundred then that might not even be enough for Youngstown collectors in fifty years. It might not be enough for Ohio collectors and soft drink collectors. But it certainly won't be enough for Coca Cola collectors. It's really not even enough for Coke cpollectors today as there are probably more than 2,000 who collect this memorabilia. The only reason there's no demand is there is no market and no mechanism. There's no knowledge of the existence of these.

If only 200 were made and these have a 10% attrition rate today and many are already gone then it could be a very highly desirable item some day.

 

Just an FYI, a search of complete eBay listings, shows these aren't selling. Course too, the asking prices on BINs and starting bids on auctions is too high, but the few listings that had a reasonable starting price haven't sold either.

The market on collectibles in general has slowed extensively across the board as well. I have quite a large beer stein collection, Anheuser Busch and some more antique ones, including one that has been handed down 7 generations in my family, and those are not selling as much as they were a year or so ago.

Everything is taking a hit from the lousy economy.

 

Everything of course if you're trying to sell. Those of us who are buying are having a great time!