2220

Nevada. Gold Hill. C. Wiegand $11.14 Silver Ingot.

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Ingots Start Price:6,000.00 USD Estimated At:18,000.00 - 24,000.00 USD
Nevada. Gold Hill. C. Wiegand $11.14 Silver Ingot.
SOLD
11,000.00USD+ (1,925.00) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2017 Sep 15 @ 23:57UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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This silver ingot is from an old coin collection that became known to us several years ago. It is a classic Assayer’s ingot, complete with the usual Wiegand logo punch. It is serial number 89, 6.60 troy ounces, gold 021 fine, silver 970 fine, gold $2.87 and silver $8.27, value $11.14. It is engraved with a classic fancy border, typical of many of the Wiegand ingots. On the reverse is a single word, “Emily.” The physical characteristics are consistent with other ingots produced in the late 1860’s to 1870’s. As a self-identified Wiegand ingot, it is one of about nineteen different Wiegand ingots known today.
The name “Emily” appears in large bold letters on the reverse. The lack of a surname is significant, but may indicate a familiarity of the person with the local community. If so, that person may be Emily Flagg, wife of Gold Hill banker and mining man H. H. Flagg. Emily, born in 1839, was 11 years junior to her husband. Flagg had been a successful banker and mining broker since the 1860’s, and probably a good friend of Wiegand. Flagg was popular. As a broker, he traded in Comstock securities daily, while also tending to his own banking business in Gold Hill. As a speculator, he and his business were subject to the manipulations of the stock Market, particularly the San Francisco Exchange, where most of the Comstock stocks were traded. In February, 1872, Flagg’s bank and brokerage were suspended because he was short on 600 shares of Savage and some Gould & Curry. A citizens committee was called to try to help him, trying to keep his creditors from closing the business. The closure affected Gold Hill News editor Alf Doten, who wrote about it in his journals and in his newspaper. 1872 was the year of the great Crown Point bonanza at Gold Hill. The stocks were heavily manipulated by John P Jones and William Sharon (among others), and Flagg may have been a victim. Ultimately, Flagg was crushed, and he and Emily left the Comstock shortly afterwards.
The possibility of a tie of this ingot to the Flagg family is also backed up by the fact that the Flagg estate was distributed over the past three decades, and at least two batches of Nevada Territorial stocks were released by family descendants, all bearing H. H. Flagg’s name. Another interesting statistic is that there were only 38 people with the name “Emily” in all of the Comstock for the 1870 and 1880 Censuses. Only one of these made much sense for this ingot, Emily Flagg. However, the tie is not exact, and we may never truly know the identity of our mysterious “Emily.”
Ex: Holabird-Kagin’s sale of August, 2012, Lot# 1402.