3 Silver Bars

[Deadwood]

I have oppertunity to purchase 3 silver bars in original cotton holders.
They are stamped " Homestake Mine 99.9 pure 1982"
They are approximately 1 inch deep, 2 inches wide and 4 inches long. Not exactly sure of the OZ size of each.
Any recomendation on the value or are they simply market value.
I will probably purchase to keep in the family as they were originaly purchased by
my grandmother and may be sold by one of her sons.
I think they should at least stay in the family as we I grew up in the area.
Thanks for any and all help.

[jim4silver]

I have oppertunity to purchase 3 silver bars in original cotton holders.
They are stamped " Homestake Mine 99.9 pure 1982"
They are approximately 1 inch deep, 2 inches wide and 4 inches long. Not exactly sure of the OZ size of each.
Any recomendation on the value or are they simply market value.
I will probably purchase to keep in the family as they were originaly purchased by
my grandmother and may be sold by one of her sons.
I think they should at least stay in the family as we I grew up in the area.
Thanks for any and all help.

Make sure that the weight is stamped on each bar, along with purity. If the weight is not stamped on the bar I would not buy it myself. The dimensions you list do not sound like a 100 oz bar of silver.

Good luck!

Jim

[Deadwood]

Yes, that WAS a mistake in the title. Please feel free to edit it anyone.
Thanks

[mistergee]

Deadwood ...just click on "modify" at the top of your post and correct your mistake(s)

[Siegfried Schlagrule]

Yes, that WAS a mistake in the title. Please feel free to edit it anyone.
Thanks

no one can edit someone else's posts. siegfried schlagrule

[BBcardsRI]

Mods have that power you silly face!

As far as the bars... they are probably just your average art/mine bar and not anything that would command a premium above "spot".

They aren't a popular art bar from what I have seen, but have fun finding someone that wants a random mine/art bar at a price more than its silver content. Rare bars aren't always a good thing as the less widely they are known, the less reputable they are in many collectors eyes.

I assume your bar came from the Homestake Mine in SD, though there are other Homestake Mines... just not as big. That mine began producing gold and silver back in the 1870's and didn't close until the early 2000's, and in that stretched it produced millions of ounces of silver and tens of millions of ounces of gold.

You would think would those numbers that more bars would be around like yours, but perhaps the mine simply didn't produce their own bullion and left that work to others, at least for the majority of their mining run.

As far as the oz. of the bars... they could be anything. Bars/rounds aren't restricted to 1 oz, 10oz, 100oz, 1000oz, etc. Considering it appears to be a US mined bar, it should be in ounces, but look at US 1k oz bars and you will see that bars need not be EXACTLY a certain number of ounces (1k ounce bars can run from roughly 900-1100 ounces per). Some bars (mainly non-US ones) weren't even created with ounces in mind, so when weighed in ounces, they are obviously not even numbers. Most reputable and common bars stamp the weight on them, including those that aren't even number of ounces... so if yours don't say their weight... the only way to tell is to scale them up. As far as the reliability of the stamped on .999 purity, once you scale the bars you can do the math on the EXACT measurements and see if it adds up to that purity per ounce. Then again you run the risk of drill and fill... but it will certainly help, especially since drill and fills are commonly a bit off.

Hope some of what I said helps you at least a little.

~Dave