2223

California. San Francisco. Undated Thomas Price & Co. Assayers Gold Ingot. No. 4152. 2.78 ounces. .9

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Ingots Start Price:12,000.00 USD Estimated At:35,000.00 - 50,000.00 USD
California. San Francisco. Undated Thomas Price & Co. Assayers Gold Ingot. No. 4152. 2.78 ounces. .9
SOLD
20,000.00USDto t*****3+ buyer's premium (3,500.00)
This item SOLD at 2017 Sep 16 @ 00:02UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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Deep yellow gold with an unusually high gold content, this ingot has a rich story to tell, see below. As they all are of the highest rarity, the appearance of any Price ingot, gold or silver, represents an important opportunity for advanced ingot specialists to go head to head with others of their persuasion for a rarity that may not resurface again for years.
According to researcher Fred Holabird “Price went to work as an assayer with Kellogg, Hewston & Co. He began teaching a series of private assay and chemistry classes in San Francisco about 1862 or 1863, advertising in the Mining and Scientific Press, the news organ for the western scientific community. The classes lasted for three months, two nights a week, and by June 1863, he was attracting twenty or more students to each class. About 1865, he supplemented his assaying career by teaching chemistry at the San Francisco City College and Toland Medical College. Kellogg, Hewston & Co. was purchased and the name of the firm changed to the San Francisco Assaying & Refining Works, and Price continued there. In 1875, Price left the firm and started his own assaying business. About ten years later, he brought in his son as a partner, and changed his firm’s name to Thomas Price & Son. His career was flourishing, and many of his students went on to become assayers, among them Henry Hanks, later a prominent San Francisco assayer himself. About 1880 Price began using the initials M. D. after his name, probably because of a degree earned from Toland Medical College. By 1887 Price’s business at 524 Sacramento Street had grown. He employed thirteen assistants and boasted the latest and most complete equipment and services. During the course of his career he examined mining properties in all the major mining locations of the west, and even in North Carolina. In 1892 he was commissioned to supervise the establishment of an enormous mining plant in South Africa. Price died at home at the age of 77 on October 13, 1912. He was father to Arthur, Minnie, and Annie, and Mrs. J.P. Turner.”
The Price Ingots
“Price ingots are very rare. There are perhaps less than five silver and one gold ingot known to the author. They date to the 1875-1885 period when Price was on his own before his son was added as a partner. The Price logotype punch on this gold ingot is important. It closely resembles the logo punch of the Kellogg & Humbert ingots of the S.S. Central America, with two lines of text held within a rectangle. This commonality is not by chance, since Price first worked for Kellogg & Hewston, the successors to Kellogg & Humbert, and both companies used logotype punches that were identical in style. The same held true for the next successor, the San Francisco Assaying & Refining Works. Since Price worked for two of these firms for years, it makes sense that he would adapt a similar style logotype for his own use. Of additional interest is that the logotypes are made in a specific manner. In each case, the logotype is a classic bullion punch – the iron punch has the letters formed backwards, extruding from the body of the punch, such that when punched or hammered into the ingot, all lettering is depressed, or incuse. This is typical of nearly all the S.S. Central America ingots, and all of the Comstock ingots and ingot punches known today. The possible exception is the ‘seeing eye’ of Harris & Marchand and later Harvey Harris.”