My favorite 1970's silver art bar "finds"

This is proof that silver is a DOG after all..............................





It is a "Doberman Pinscher" silver art bar. It was minted in 1973 by the Justice Mint. 5000 of these were minted. I bought it from a local flea market last Saturday (Jan. 7) and I paid $29.75 for it (spot silver was $28.75/oz at that time). Serial # 1652 (of 5000). It is not in the greatest of shape but I do not mind.

Silver art bars have been very hard to find since the silver smack down of the paper price and I suspect that it will be like this for a while. Patience will be the key for me during this time because they are currently hard to find in my local level.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

As previously mentioned these were issued by Postal Commemorative Society. I purchased them as I do any privately minted piece from these types of companies to show my support of the product style. This was a set of 12...issued in 2005. PCS also issued Disney Ingots based on the postage stamp designs from the same year...the Disney ingots were of the same style as these lighthouse ingots. Later in 2005 PCS offered the 50 State ingots...again same shape but gold plated bronze. PCS must have been on a throw-back to the 1970's kick in 2005. I would venture that these are very rare. It was not promoted much.


QUOTE=verzameldirk;1212522]




does anyone know anything about this lighthouse, who minted these bars and how many are there of

Dick[/QUOTE]

 

thanks for the info


Dick

 

As far as minting I would guess Sunshine Mint as they struck other stuff for PCS.

 

[/QUOTE]


Lighthouse Museum of St. Augustine (St. Augustine, Florida)

 

A couple of silver art bars that I purchased so far this month.......................





A 1974 USSC "The Penguin" silver art bar (USSC-177). Serial # 1333 (of 2000 minted). I paid $35 for it (spot was $33.67/oz at the time).






A 1974 USSC "The Kangaroo" silver art bar (USSC-196). Serial # 1159 (of 2000 minted). I paid $35 for this bar (spot was $33.67/oz at the time).

 

Pledge of allegiance

Hi all-

Thanks for all of the pics and posts. I am now addicted to art bars.....I picked this up the other day at my LCS. Any idea who minted this bar? It has the pledge of allegiance with two cartoon figures. It is #0099 of ?. It also has what I think are 4 mint marks on the edge maybe C M 77 P. thanks in advance. I will try to post a pic tonight.

 

I am going to make a wild guess by saying that, based on your description in that post, then it is probably a Greathouse Hamilton Mint bar that was minted in 1977. The mintage number for this particular bar is 180 according to the 4th edition silver art bar price guide.

The initials that you are probably seeing are really "H M 77 P" in which "H M" stands for Hamilton Mint and "77" in the mint year of 1977 and "P" stands for proof. If all of that is correct, then it is listed as a GreatHouse silver art bar in the 4th edition silver art bar guidebook and the reverse should be blank. On the bottom of the front of the bar, it should have initials of "NJG" on the lower left hand side of the front of the bar and on the lower right hand side on the front of the bar, it should have the initials of "TRG".

Generally speaking, In my past experience, Greathouse silver art bars are very hard to find at coin shows and at LCS because of the low mintage numbers. Based on what you described in your post, then I suspect that this bar is a Greathouse Hamilton Mint "Pledge of Allegiance" bar and if that is the case, then that is an excellent find IMO.

 

I went to a coin show to look for silver art bars and found and bought this interesting one.............







It is a 1-oz "The Last Supper" silver art bar (MEM-17). It was minted in 1973 by Mount Everest Mint. I paid $30.00 for it (spot silver finished today at $28.89/oz). Serial # 1724 (of 2000).

 

To any sellers, I have been searching for a 1977 Happy Birthday silver art bar to purchase. I cannot seem to find one anywhere, if anyone has or knows of someone that may have one they are willing to sell, please let me know! THANK YOU

 

My latest '70's silver art bar find.......................





It is a 1974 United States Silver Corporation "Camel Rentals" silver art bar (USSC-115). I bought this today at a coin show and I paid $28.00 for it (spot was $26.90/oz today).

 

I decided to go to a small coin show today to see what interesting silver art bars I can find and I ended up finding this...............





It is a "George Washington" silver art bar (WWM-10). It was minted by the World Wide Mint in 1974. 1,350 of these were minted according to the 4th edition of the Archie Kidd book titled "An Indexed Guide Book of Silver Art Bars". I bought this at this month's Greater Atlanta Area coin show in Marietta, GA that I went to earlier this morning and I paid $27.60 for it (Friday's spot close was $27.10/oz). The small dark spot on the lower right hand corner of the front of this bar is part of my finger. Apparently part of my finger got in the way while I was taking this front picture. There is also some toning on this bar but most of it seems to be on the reverse side which that is fine with me.

 

I have both the short caboose and long caboose
Generals and the Water gate Bug. My favirite is
Streak with Silver.

 

I remember seeing the "Streak With Silver" one. I think that one was minted by International Silver Ingot Corporation (ISIC) and I believe the mint year was 1974. If it that is the one that I am thinking of, then those are very hard to find. Based on my past experiences, ISIC bars, generally speaking are very hard to find since some of the mintages that I have seen are 500 (or less) for each bar.

 

Can someone define art bar? I see a lot of "art bars" on Ebay or Amazon that are really worthless crap made of clad with a thin coating of gold or silver. Is this Odie bar an "art bar"?
http://www.silvertowne.com/p-11553-garfield-standing-odie-1oz-999-silver-bar.aspx

 

Art Bar definition = Miniature form of artwork on a small rectangular square of metal (could be silver, copper, etc.)

The definition silver art bars to me are miniature forms of artwork stamped on a .999 (or .925 sterling) silver rectangular ingots. It could be a 1-oz size .999 rectangle (or .925 sterling) or as large as a 10-oz size .999 rectangle. The clad bars that you see on ebay or Amazon are not silver art bars because they are not made of 1 troy oz of .999 (or .925 sterling) silver

I also agree with you Buddy16cat, there are some clad art bars that are not real .999 1-oz silver art bar. I see so many of them on ebay that it is so unbelievable. There are also people who think that these are .999 1-troy oz silver art bars and they are not because they are not made of .999 silver.

I have also written a thread on another forum to list the bars to stay away from when bidding on ebay. Here is the link to my other on bar to avoid and I feel that this will help others:

http://www.goldismoney2.com/showthread.php?33074-A-list-of-bars-to-avoid-when-bidding-on-ebay

This above thread that I written is not perfect in any way but it covers most clad art bars that should be avoided if you are looking for .999 (or .925) pure 1-troy oz silver art bars.

EDIT: The Odie bar an "art bar". It is a silver art bar based on my definition. Silvertowne is currently the major manufacturer of the most current silver art bars out there right now.

 

Art Bars can be made out anything. There was a 70's series called
Numis-stamps that depicted coins with in a stamp like
border. They were struck in base metal. I think it was pewter.

 

There are some that were made of Pewter but I cannot remember exactly what those Pewter art bars were. There was also a version of a Greathouse Productions art bar that were made out of Aluminum and some Greathouse Productions art bars that were made out of Bronze. Most of the Greathouse Productions art bars were 1 troy oz silver art bars and all of them are very hard to find because they have very low mintages. There were also some Coca-Cola art bars that were made out of bronze that were minted around the same time that the .999 pure silver versions came out.

You also have copper art bars that were made out of copper

 

I'm showlng 750 mintage for Streak with Silver in Kidd's fifth edition.
I don't remember how hard it was to find. I got it off ebay for $16 which at
the time was probably 2x spot. Gasparilla (any year) was always the hard
one. Whenever I did find one there would already be a dozen bidders
on it pushing it to the moon. And that was before silver passed $11.

 

I guess this Silvertowne bar based on a buffalo nickel would be considered an art bar.
http://www.silvertowne.com/p-19432-silvertowne-trademark-buffalo-replica-1oz-999-silver-bar.aspx
I certainly would trust Silvertowne over some other sellers. I have what they call a "Donkey Bar" which is just there motto on a .999 silver bar.