2221

Nevada. Virginia City-Storey County, Ore Assay Report of C. Wiegand & Co.

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:275.00 USD Estimated At:800.00 - 1,200.00 USD
Nevada. Virginia City-Storey County, Ore Assay Report of C. Wiegand & Co.
SOLD
340.00USDto c******2+ buyer's premium (59.50)
This item SOLD at 2017 Sep 19 @ 17:09UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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This is an extremely rare assay certificate for one of the most prolific small ingot makers in America. X-Ford Collection. The certificate is for three samples submitted by Benjamin Franklin Leete, a mining man and successful financier in his own right. He located and produced soda ash from a locale near Fallon near a site that later became known as “Leeteville”. Here, the three samples show high amounts of gold and silver, with the best sample worth $216.23 per ton. These were probably hand-selected high grade samples from a prospect Leete was looking at. The form, printed in the typical US Mint color of blue for silver (red for gold), is datelined at Wiegand’s “Virginia Assay Office” in Virginia City, September 15, 1880. At this point, the certificate is issued by his son. Wiegand was murdered May 31, 1880, covered up to look like a suicide.
The reverse of the form carries John J. Ford’s pencil notations at the base, noting he bought it from heritage in 1989. I (FH) found this certificate about 1984 (along with some rare Leete Nevada covers) and sold it into a very active market of collectors seeking assay certificates. To date, it is one of a small handful of Wiegand certificates known (less than five), institutionally or otherwise.
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