San Francisco "Grease Bars"
100 oz class silver ingots produced by the United States Assay Office San Francisco are fairly common; most have no markings and are the true "grease bars" with only the weight marked in grease pencil. Early productions were hallmarked, serial numbered and stamped with 999 fineness. As time passed and demand increased, production ramped up and markings fell by the wayside. The U.S. Treasury Department letter pictured, announces the reduction of fineness to .996 and .998 as of November 1, 1967. The ingot pictured is a very rare .998 example with hallmark. For more information on grease bars, check out SILVERINGOTS.COM
Ken Conaway
Comments
Kepi
Level 6
That's the coolest! Love your blogs!
LNCS
Level 5
Another cool item. Thanks for sharing.
PastorK7354
Level 4
Great historical information. Pat, if you are able to get ingots from the mint let me know. ... :-)
Liberty Walking Half
Level 5
Thanks for the information, learning lots of new things about ingots!
Mike
Level 7
So this letter dated 1967 tells me I can call the mint and order these? Just curious.
Longstrider
Level 6
These are great blogs. I hope you continue with more. I am learning things I didn't even know about..Thanks. Grease Bars! Who'd a thunk it??
Liberty Walking Half
Level 5
so these ingots are like the fast food of the numismatic/ingot world? lol
It's Mokie
Level 6
Who new they even existed? Not Me. Thank you for sharing your passion for these incredible silver ingots.
Well worn Copper
Level 5
Don't even think about slabbing it!
Liberty Walking Half
Level 5
Seeing as how much regular over-sized slabs cost, It might be cheaper to buy the ingot itself than it would to have it slabbed!
Longstrider
Level 6
Good one WWC. Made me laugh.