While I'm certainly no expert on Mint-produced silver bars, I have a question about the New Orleans Mint silver bar in last week's issue of The E-Sylum.

As you may know, the Annual Reports of the Director of the Mint listed not only the coins produced at each mint, but the gold and silver bars each mint produced, as well.

According to the Annual Reports, the New Orleans Mint produced $13,960.80 in “unparted” silver bars in the Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 1878, but no silver bars at all in the FYEs June 30, 1879 and June 30, 1880. The New Orleans Mint did report producing $112.43 in “standard” bars in FYE June 30, 1881, however.

Even though the bar pictured would have only been worth less than $12.00 at the time, I would still expect that the Mint would have reported its production. (Also, if the bar was made to mark the re-opening of the Mint, I would also have expected that more than one bar would have been made, which makes reporting that much more likely.)

I have researched a number of sources and while most specific event dates are a bit in conflict, I can find no reference to mint operations after the Civil War prior to 1879. The facility actually reopened in 1876 but only as an assay office according to everything I have found to date. The Annual Report of the Director of the Mint may help shed some light on actual dates since according to the email below, it reports "mint" production in 1878. The date given to the ingot by both Fred and the Louisiana State Museum is based on the date that minting operations once again began after the Civil War.

I would point out that this ingot has been identified as a "presentation" piece which may exclude it from the count of "standard" bars produced. In Fred's handling and research, he believed it was made as a gift for the Superintendent of the Mint but I did not include that much detail in my blog. From what I have seen coming out of other early mint and assay offices, it would be more likely that silver bars being produced were poured or cast so the composition of this ingot sets it apart as well.

Unless there is other information stamped on the back of the bar, I suspect most of the initial conclusions are incorrect. First, it appears to be a normal New Orleans silver bar made in the course of work, and not a presentation bar. It has no special characteristics and the clipped end suggests nothing of a "formal" use was intended. Second, the 8.85 oz weight - small for mint bars - suggests to me that this is a bar of residual silver recovered from a gold deposit after refining. Third, numbering of melts and deliveries began with "1" each new calendar year, but this does not presume any particular year, so nothing connects it to 1879.

It is a nice artifact and one of only a few gold or silver bars produced by the mints - out of millions - that remain in collections. However, it seems a "stretch" to claim anything further.