My favorite 1970's silver art bar "finds"

This is a 1-oz "Kentucky Pistol Cal67 CA1776" silver art bar (BM-8). It was minted by the Belford Mint in 1973. I bought this bar today at a coin show and I paid $20 for this art bar (spot silver finished at $17.70/oz).

 

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This is a 1-oz "Women's Lib - 1973" silver art bar (CEM-52). It was minted in 1973 by the Ceeco Mint. I bought this silver art bar yesterday at a coin show and I paid $19.00 for it (spot silver was $17.70/oz at the time).

 

A 1-oz "Leonardo DA Vinci" silver art bar (USSC-101). It was minted by the United States Silver Corporation (USSC) in 1974. There were 7,500 of these art bars minted according to the 4th edition of Archie Kidd's book called "An Indexed Guide Book of Silver Art Bars". I bought this art bar on Friday (April 16) at a coin show and I paid $20.00 for it (spot silver closed at $17.70/oz at the time).

 

A 1-oz "1913 V Nickel" silver art bar (WWM-53).





It was minted by the World Wide Mint in 1974. There were 10,000 of these art bar minted according to the 4th edition of Archie Kidd's book called "An Indexed Guide Book of Silver Art Bars". This silver art bar weighs slightly over 1 troy oz (1.01 troy oz on my digital scale) and there is toning on both the front and reverse side of this art bar. I bought this art bar at a coin show last week and I paid $19.00 for it (spot silver was $17.70/oz at that time).

 

The following pictures are of a 1-oz "Old Ironsides" silver art bar (MAD-10V1). It was minted by the Madison Mint in 1972. I bought this art bar last Saturday (May 1) at a coin show and I paid $20 for it (spot silver was $18.64/oz at that time).

 

Saw a toned one like it today for $19. But the reverse was blank. I passed it up due to some scuffing.

 

I wish I'd have seen this thread earlier, I'd have loved to make arrangements to buy that Air Force bar from ya.

Right now all the bars I have are art bars because that is all the local shops have aside from rounds and ASE. I like the art bars because it's a nice piece of history to go along with the PM value of the bar.

One of these days I'll get around to taking pictures of my collection and posting them.

 

This is a 1-oz "Clarence Darrow" silver art bar (HAM-625).







It was minted by the Hamilton Mint in 1975. I bought it today from my local coin dealer and I paid $19.87 for it (spot was $18.37 at that time). There is toning on the reverse side and the edges of this bar. The dates say 1857-1938 in the description on the reverse side of this silver art bar. This silver bar is part of a 50-bar set called "Our Greatest Americans". Serial # 4208 (out of 10,000).

 

I'm not a collector of silver art bars, but lets examine some of the specifics.

You paid $1.50 over melt, so if silver rises to that level ($19.87), you would be at the break even point on paper. Unfortunately, most dealers would not pay you much more than 20% back of melt for them, so silver would have to rise to almost $25/oz. for you to really break even.

Private mints like Hamilton, Danbury & Franklin have been selling these at substantial premiums for decades, and their so-called "investment spiel" is about as truthful as those you hear on Coin Vault. The fact that only 10,000 were made is just a lot more of the garbage, and thousands of people have woken up to the harsh reality that they would never ever get their money back.

If you are collecting them just because you like them, that's fine, but please, don't think that this is a good investment.

Chris

 

When it comes to selling silver art bars, then it is best to sell them on ebay because you can get a much better price on them even when you factor in ebay and paypal fees. When you sell them at a local dealer, then the local dealer will give you metal value only minus a discount.

I do not think that I ever mentioned anything about it being an "investment". I bought them because I like what I buy. I like to collect silver art bars, especially ones that were minted in the 1970's. To me, $1.50 over spot is a good price for me considering that ebay or some other place online will probably sell them for more that what I paid for it today at the local dealer. If I can save money buying them locally, then that is what I will do.

If I have a chance to get a silver art bar that I like for $1.50 over spot locally instead of $5-$6 over spot on ebay, then I will obviously get it for $1.50 over spot at the local dealer. I like collecting silver art bars but that does not mean that I have to pay ebay premiums for those silver art bars. Mentioning the price that I paid and listing the spot price is just my way of saying that you can buy silver art bars for cheaper locally than what you can get them on ebay.

I have bought some silver art bars that I liked on ebay on the past and had decent deals on them but that is rare that this happens. I prefer to buy most of my silver art bars locally because I can get them at a lower premium. When I go to a coin show, I can sometimes get silver art bars for $0.50 to $1.00 over spot.

I will also admit that I have overpaid on a few silver art bars in the past but I like what I buy and that is not too big of a deal to me but I try to pay the lowest possible premium over spot for silver art bars that I like.

I have seen some Hamilton Mint bars sell on ebay for more than what I have paid today. I have never sold anything on ebay but I have looked at prices on certain silver art bars and I have some idea of what certain art bars will go for on ebay.

There are some '70's silver art bars that will sell for a lot more on ebay. Certain Coca-Cola silver art bars will sell for $100's of dollars on ebay but they are very hard to find locally at a low premium and it is more luck than anything else IMO. Greathouse Production silver art bars sell for $100's of dollars on ebay but they are very hard to find locally at a low premium over spot.

When it comes to silver art bars and selling them on ebay, there are other factors such as demand and the "rarity" value of certain bars. You cannot just go by just metal value alone.

Take a look on ebay and look at some of the prices that certain silver art bars sell for on ebay and you will see what I am talking about. I am still learning about certain '70's silver art bars since I have been collecting '70's silver art bars for only just under 2 years.

 

I could not have said it better myself...

Glad to see you still posting man... Hadn't heard from you since you left gm2... Haven't been over there much myself latlely....

Anyway, keep it up!!!

 

A 1-oz "Star of Wonder" (MEM-33).............





This art bar was minted in 1973 by the Mount Everest Mint. I bought this yesterday (May 29) at my local coin dealer and I paid $19.87 for it (spot was $18.37 at that time). There is a lot of toning on both sides of this silver art bar. There were 8,875 of these bars minted according to the 4th edition of Archie Kidd's guide book called "An Indexed Guide Book of Silver Art Bars". There are certain Mount Everest Mint art bars that have serial numbers on them but this particular Mount Everest Mint bat does not have any serial number on it.

On the reverse side, under the "Star of Wonder", it looks like it says "M Viquers"(spelling?). I do not know what that means but I am making a guess by saying that it looks like the name of the designer that created the art bar design but I am not very sure on that. The "MEM" ,that is located just under the weight and purity stamp, stands for Mount Everest Mint. It might be hard to see in the second picture but just under the "MEM", it has the copyright symbol with the year 1973 on it.

 

Anything with Coca-Cola on it sells because there is a huge collector base for those things. I'm not familiar with Greathouse Productions, but it may have something to do with the quantities produced.

It's odd how some things will sell like crazy while others never seem to gain much in value. For example, there are two French medals depicting two different ocean liners. One is the S.S. Normandie and the other is the S.S. Liberte. Both medals have similar mintages (fewer than 500); both are from the same general era, and both are struck in bronze. But, I've never seen a specimen of the Normandie sell for less than $500 while you can buy a specimen of the Liberte for less than $100 practically any time. Go figure!

Chris

 

There were not many GreatHouse Productions art bars produced in the late '70's/early '80's. I do not have any GreatHouse Production silver art bars in my collection but here are a few examples of GreatHouse Production Mint silver art bars with low mintage numbers according to the 4th edition of Archie Kidd's guide book called "An Indexed Guide Book of Silver Art Bars".

1. 1979 "Popeye's 50th" (TRG-19) = 185 minted

2. 1979 "Pumps are Closed" (TRG-16) = 130 minted

3. 1979 "Levi Stauss & Co." (TRG-18) = 50 minted

4. 1979 "Charlie Brown" (TRG-15) = 50 minted

5. 1979 "Emmett Kelly" (TRG-12) = 175 minted

These and other GreatHouse art bars are very hard to find based on the very low mintage numbers listed in the guidebook. That is one reason that you will see GreatHouse Mint bars have ebay winning bids of up to $130 (or more). GreatHouse is IMO the top tier art bars ever created in the late '70's/early '80's.

Since I am somewhat of a cheap art bar collector, I am not going to pay $100+ for any silver art bar. If I ever get lucky to find a GreatHouse productions silver art bar locally at a .999 generic silver premium, then that would be the greatest silver art bar find for me. However, the chances of me finding a GreatHouse Mint bar at .999 generic silver premiums are very slim but I will not give up on it.

 

Thanks Smullen. I hope that you are doing fine. I apologize for not responding any sooner than now to your post. I did not give up posting on internet forums but I am concentrating on posting on collector-oriented forums such as Cointalk. The only forums that I am currently posting on are CoinTalk and Collectors Universe forums because these two forums fit me as a collector. I left the Gold-Silver.US forum last Friday (May 28).

The last 2 '70's silver art bar pics on this thread were my latest '70's silver art bar purchases. I have not been buying as many '70's silver art bars as of late because 1.) pickings have been very slim on the local level and 2.) I am saving some money for a major coin show that I am planning to attend in late August.

Since I am not buying as many silver art bars, I have been spending more time researching ebay winning auction prices on certain '70's silver art bars and I have also been looking at my silver art bar price guides. I have also been spending more time here on CoinTalk and Collectors Universe forums since I am no longer a member of GIM2 and Gold-Silver.US.

I also have my silver art bar "wish list" completed but I will look it over again and make any additions (or deletions) to it if needed.

 

Very nice. I do not think any of mine have serial numbers. I will start paying better attention. This particular art bar is special.

 

A 1-oz "Coca-Cola-Birmingham" silver art bar (WWM-74).









It was minted by the World Wide Mint in 1977 and it is part of the Coca-Cola 75th Anniversary ingot set. I won this silver art bar on ebay last Sunday (June 13) and I paid a total of $29.99 for it (spot was $18.22/oz at the time). There was a mintage of 12,000 of these silver bars according to the second edition of Thomas A Mock's guide book called "Coca-Cola Bottler's 75th Anniversary Ingot and Round Guide Book 1975-1988".

 

A 1-oz "Headless Horseman" silver art bar (HAM-174).







It was minted by the Hamilton Mint in 1975. This bar is part of a 24-bar set called "The Treasury of American Folklore". I bought this bar today from my local coin dealer for $20.50 (spot silver closed at $19.17). It might be hard to see in the 3rd picture because of the toning but the serial # is 1132 on the right end of the side of this bar and it says .999 F.S. on the left end of this side of this bar. There were 10,000 minted according to the 4th edition of Archie Kidd's book called "An Indexed Guide Book of Silver Art Bars". The side of the bar looks like it says "76" on it as in 1976 mint year but the 4th edition silver art bar price guide has the mint year as 1975. There is some toning on this art bar

 

A 1-oz "Coca-Cola-Houston" silver art bar (WWM-71)










It was minted by the World Wide Mint in 1977 and it is part of the Coca-Cola 75th Anniversary ingot set. I won this silver art bar on ebay last Thursday (July 8, 2010) and paid a total price of $30.59 for it (spot was $17.96/oz at the time). The price that I paid for this art bars is a fair price on ebay in my opinion. I did not expect to win this particular bar on ebay because I have seen this particular bar go for between $40-$45 on ebay in a past auction. Like most Coca-Cola silver art bars, this one was hard to find locally at my local dealers and at coin shows. I guess I got lucky to get it at the price that I did.

 

Giving this old thread a lift... on the Spirit of St. Louis

I know that this is an old thread/post that I'm replying to... It's been a while since I could get access to, photograph, drop into layout and upload my Madison Mint - Spirit of St. Louis silver art bar. I remembered this one was posted long ago and really wanted to give mine some flight time as well. Apologies for the reflections. The bar is in a direct fit Air-Tite Holder.

Additionally, this piece can be paired up to form a greater numismatic collection with my Small Size FRN District-collection of St. Louis Federal Reserve Notes that has taken off since I joined CT and the Paper Money: District Currency Collectors Group. Check us out!





More information about the Spirit of St. Louis