My favorite 1970's silver art bar "finds"

A good ebay find on this '70's silver art IMO.............









It is a 1-oz "A Happy New Year 1975" (MAD-106) silver art bar. This silver art bar was minted by the Madison Mint. I won this ebay auction last month and I paid a total of $16.09 for it (spot silver was $13.84/oz at the time of purchase). IMO it was a good price that I paid for it at $2.25 over spot silver on ebay. The ebay transaction went smoothly.

 

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Flags from different countries are good..............






It is a 20 gram (0.64 troy oz) silver art bar that shows a flag of Bolivia. It was minted by the Silver Mint in 1973. It is part of a set of flags that were minted. I bought this earlier this month on ebay as a Buy-It-Now auction for a total of $16.98. I rarely purchase BIN auctions on ebay but I liked this particular art bar. As I have mentioned in other posts, I usually keep my ebay silver art bar purchases to around $4 over spot silver and lower but I bought this because I liked the art work on this 20 gram flag bar. Every once in a while I like a silver art bar so much that I did not mind paying the price for this silver art bar. It did not affect my silver cost bases per oz that much because I bought other 1-oz silver art bars for much lower premiums over spot online and locally at my coin dealer and coin shows. The ebay transaction went smoothly.

 

Silver Art.

Ok. Now you have me interested. Is there a book or source of information to identify the bars from the 70s and 80s?

Edit: Here's another thought. How reliable are the weights and purity stamped on the bars? Since they come from a variety of mints, are there any known to be less than .999 or less than 1 ounce even though they are stamped?

 

There are some 1-oz '70's silver art bars that were slightly underweight when I used my digital scale to weigh them. The variance in the weight ranged from 0.1 gram to 0.5 grams. I noticed that a few of the 1-oz '70's silver art bars that I have were off by 0.1 gram to 0.5 grams on my scale. I think that a variance of +/- 0.5 grams on a 1 troy oz silver bar that old is the norm. All of the '70's art bars that I have are .999 silver. I noticed that some of the Madison Mint bars that I have were slightly underweight but all of them passed the silver ring test.

Edit: In addition, The 1-oz Madison mint silver art bars that were underweight were within the 7% weight tolerance that orpheus72 mentioned in post #45 when I set my digital scale to weigh in troy oz's. All of my '70's 1-oz silver art bars that I have are within the 7% weight tolerance that orpheus72 mentioned in post #45.

That is a good question and thanks for asking it. Thanks orpheus72 for providing the information in post #45.

 

Yes cloudsweeper, there is a book that we consider as our 'bible', and it's called "An Indexed Guide Book of Silver Art Bars" that was issued by J.A. Kidd. He was president of the IASAC untel a few weeks ago, when he was succeeded by Nancy Yee.
It is a great reference book that contains 5000+ pictures of all obverse and reverse sides of Art Bars issued by 40+ Mints.
The most used versions are the 5th and 6th edition, but those books are scarse to find, and expensive as you finf them on Ebay. For identifying the best is the 5th edition as it goes over bars minted in the years between 1969 to 1990. Bars minted after 1990 are revieuwed in the 6th edition from 2008.

As for the weight and purity of the bars, if they are stamped .999 and from a known Mint (so it stands in the guidebook), you can be sure it is .999 silver. but not all bars are marked (some of the earlier bars were not). About the weight, a tolerance of 7% on the 1 Troy Oz is allowed, so the bars can be sleightly lighter or hevyer.

Now I hope we've got you interested in our collection-domain as a Silver Art Bar collector.

 

As always it's good to see some new posts today on this thread.
And silver is creeping upward. As of this posting silver is $13.66 per troy ounce.

 

Yesterday my latest addition to my MLM-bars has arrived.

It is a Mother Lode Mint's 'Coin Press' (MLM-24) that had a mintage of 2500 pieces.
The serial number on the reverse side seems a little strange, as the first two digits seems to be of a different font-type ( O and 0 ).
I can't tell if this is normal or not as this is the first numbered bar from MLM under the 1000 in my possession.

 

W.C. Fields quotes are good......





It is a 1-oz "W.C. Fields" silver art bar (CEM-48). This silver art bar was minted in 1973 by the Ceeco Mint. I bought this silver art bar from my local coin dealer on April 2009 and I paid $14.75 for it (spot silver closed at $12.80/oz at the time of purchase).

More information on W.C. Fields can be found at:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W._C._Fields

W.C. Fields quotes can be found at:

http://digitaldreamdoor.nutsie.com/pages/quotes/wcfields.html

 

Winning is good...............







It is a 1-oz "Secretariat" silver art bar (USSC-146). It was minted by the United States Silver Corporation (USSC) in 1973. I bought it last week for $18 (when spot silver was $13.71/oz). There is some toning on both sides of this art bar.

EDIT: See post # 51 for better pics of this silver art bar.

 

I enjoyed your thread, thanks for sharing. I like how you also include price paid vs spot....cool stuff.

 

I decided to go outside to take better pictures of the 1-oz USSC Secretariat silver art bar . In post #49, I took those pics at night and the lighting was not that great inside my apartment. I am still learning to take better pictures with my digital camera. I am sorry for the not-so-great pics in post #49. :signs14:

These pictures should be much better than the ones that I took in post #49:







See post # 49 for brief information about this silver art bar.

 

Babe Ruth

Recently a Babe Ruth art bar sold on eBay for a bit over $30. I have one just like it and wonder how I can get $30 for it? Everytime I list something on eBay it does not sell or if it sells it goes too cheap. Comments?
Are there websites for selling to collectors who will pay $30?
Nice to see this thread continuing.

 

It depends on the silver art bar that you are selling. For example, A 1-oz '70's coca-cola silver art bar by the World Wide Mint might easily sell for maybe $50 (or more) on ebay while a 1-oz art Madison Mint art bar showing a picture of an antique car might only bring in $20 after you factor in shipping costs even though the "rarity" value of the Madison Mint art bar might be greater than $20 based on what a guidebook.

In the end, the marketplace (i.e. ebay) determines the demand and the worth of a particular silver art bar.

I have seen some '70's silver art bars go for more than $100 in an ebay auction in the past.

EDIT: There might be some other websites that sell to other art bar collectors but you might want to do a google search on that because I am not completely sure about that. Honestly IMO ebay is really the only chance to get more than silver content value for an art bar because you have a bigger pool of potential buyers than anywhere else on the internet.

 

I am afraid you are correct on that
I just came from a large Antiques multi-dealer marketplace where I bought an unc 1955 Franklin for $14 this morning.
There are about 30 or more art bars on display.
The prices are mostly $18 each with a few marked $17 and some at $19.

 

Out-of-Control Federal gov't spending is very bad..............











This is a 1-oz "200th Anniversary Boston Tea Party" silver art bar (USSC-159). It was minted by the United States Silver Corporation (USSC) in 1973. I bought this silver art bar last month for $18 (when spot silver was around $13.87/oz). There is toning on both sides of this silver art bar.

More information on the Boston Tea Party can be found at the following web link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boston_Tea_Party

 

One of my '70's silver art bar finds at the Blue Ridge Numismatic Association coin show.......







It is a 1-oz "Raccoon" (MEM-043) silver art bar. It was minted in 1974 by the Mount Everest Mint. This silver bar is part of 6-bar series called the Wildlife Tree Series which was produced by the Mount Everest Mint. A serial number of 4421 is stamped on the side of this bar. There is heavy toning on this art bar especially on the reverse side. I paid $15.00 for this silver art bar (spot silver closed today at $14.15/oz).

 

Another silver art bar of the Wildlife Tree series..........







This is the 1-oz 1974 "Squirrel" (MEM-048) silver art bar of the 6-bar Wildlife Tree series. The serial # is also 4421 and it is stamped on the side the of the bar. Like the "Raccoon" art bar, this art bar also has a lot of toning on it especially on the reverse side of this silver bar. I suspect that the dealer bought this silver art bar series as a set and that dealer decided to sell each bar of the series separately. I also paid $15.00 (spot silver was $14.15/oz) for this bar at the Blue Ridge Numismatic Association 50th Anniversary coin show. I believe that this is bar 6 of 6 of the Wildlife Tree Series by the Mount Everest Mint.

 

I decided to go back to the coin show to see if that particular dealer had the remaining silver art bars from the 6-bar 1974 Wildlife Tree series. I was able to find the remaining 4 silver art bars from the same dealer table that I bought the "Raccoon" and "Squirrel" art bars from. Here are the remaining 4 art bars:

The Woodpecker (MEM-044)........



I did find the Woodpecker silver bar after all. I must have missed it yesterday during my first day at the coin show. This is bar # 2 of 6.

The Owl (MEM-045)...........



This is bar # 3 of 6 of the Wildlife Tree series from the Mount Everest Mint.

The Bear Cub (MEM-046)...........



This is bar # 4 of 6.

The Lovebirds (MEM-047)...........

This is bar # 5 of 6

I paid $15.00 for each silver art bar. The serial number 4421 is on each of these remaining 4 art bars as well as the "Raccoon" (Bar # 1 of 6) and the "Squirrel" (Bar #6 of 6) art bars. This 6-bar Wildlife Tree series is complete.

 

I like the Wildlife Tree series. That's a great way to put some silver away.

 

Another '70's silver art bar find at the Blue Ridge Numismatic Association Coin Show............





It is a 1-oz "Prospector" silver art bar (HAM-68). It was minted by the Hamilton Mint in 1973. The "Prospector" art bar is part of the "Profiles of the West" series which was produced by the Hamilton Mint. I bought this silver art bar on the 1st day of the Blue Ridge Numismatic Association Coin Show (Friday) for $16.00 (spot silver closed at $14.15/oz).

Note: The bottom of the reverse side of this silver art bar says:

"The Hamilton Mint"
"1 Troy OZ 999 F.S. Proof"