I don't have any silver bars, just this gold one that was purchased in 1979 direct from the Nevada City Mint. Not sure if they remain in business.
Here's a really cool hand poured 5 ounce round that a dealer here in Portland is starting to make. He's calling them Pour'dland after the city. The flow lines he's getting are really nice.
Yeah, he's doing 1oz, 3oz, 5oz and 10oz. He's asking spot plus around $3.00 per ounce. He's also working on a hand poured State of Oregon shaped bar that I think will be around 6oz. He showed me an unfinished one, and I really want to get one of those. I'm impressed at how well they are coming out. I tried to do some of my own and they were horrible. Lol
I think Monarch, like other refiners want to satisfy there customers ! so offering This program gives piece of mind to buyers of there products
I'm a YPS guy...started buying them in 2012 when he did it as a hobby and have continued to do so to this day. I have between 300 and 400 ounces of bars with serial #3. Media Information Album: PeacePeople Uploaded By: PeacePeople Date: Jul 12, 2017 View Count: 688 Comment Count: 0 EXIF Data (Expand / Collapse) File Size: 424.8 KB Mime Type: image/jpeg Width: 1416px Height: 1465px Date / Time: 2016:09:26 19:41:52 Note: EXIF data is stored on valid file types when a photo is uploaded. The photo may have been manipulated since upload (rotated, flipped, cropped etc). My bars by PeacePeople posted Jul 12, 2017 at 4:55 PM This is one I commissioned...these are the prototypes and the bottom one went into production...maybe I'll put up some more later
If I ever wished to get into counterfeiting, hand poured bars would be my entry. As you mentioned, every one can be close to unique. so there are no markers to indicate origin. I suspect there are already many of these are in play already, as most people just store them, and the marking are close to be in the range of ability of an amateur artisan. I have never seen a video of a company making hand poured bars, and I notice that the weights all seem to be rounded to whole ounce, which would be amazing to me if actually poured by hand. Not trying to rain on the parade, as it matters not to me, but I would have concerns. Jim