Can anyone provide any info on this silver bar set?

Buffalode

Someone contacted me to try to find out what he could about these silver bars. I tried to look them up online but the photos I am finding all show bars marked with the weight and fineness. These are not, but the owner says the weight is correct for 1 troy ounce bars, and the designs match photos he has found. Apparently it was a set out of 1000 sets produced. All of the bars bear the same number (00112) which has me wondering if that could mean set 112 out of the 1000 produced. Basically, I think he is wanting to confirm authenticity and whatever else he can learn about them if anyone is familiar with them.
Any info anyone can provide will be appreciated and I will send the owner who is not a member here a link to this discussion so he can follow along. Thanks for any help.

CaptHenway

The few designs I can make out are familiar, but I have never seen a set like that with matching serial numbers. Sounds like a good marketing gimmick. I see no reason to doubt them.
TD

OPA

I've seen individual ones come up for auction, but not an entire set.
Most individual ones sell at spot or only very slightly above spot.

BigE

I have a copy of A. Kidds book on silver art bars and the designs all appear to be from the mother lode mint, I imagine this minter included 1 bar of everything he made into books and sold them. lmk if you need any of the bars looked up-------BigE

Buffalode

Thanks everyone for the help. The owner didn't say anything about wanting to sell them, but just out of curiousity would a full set like this have any additional value over the bars individually? BigE, thanks, I'll send the owner an email and ask if he needs any of the individual bars looked up. I don't have the book you mentioned. What info would the book have on the individual bars?

BigE

Bob, just tells you the mintage, year made and assigns them a catalog number. There are a few varieties or different reverses on 4 or 5 of the bars they made that supposedly are worth more, but for the most part ML Mint bars are maybe worth a little more than melt. Never seen a set like that though and the bar with 112 on it may have been created just for the sets because they serial numbered very few of their bars and the design is different-----------BigE

CaptHenway

<< <i>Thanks everyone for the help. The owner didn't say anything about wanting to sell them, but just out of curiousity would a full set like this have any additional value over the bars individually? BigE, thanks, I'll send the owner an email and ask if he needs any of the individual bars looked up. I don't have the book you mentioned. What info would the book have on the individual bars? >>



Back when silver was in the single digits, a matched set would have been cute and worth a small premium to a collector of art bars. I suspect that at this level, there aren't many collectors who would be willing or able to buy it intact and keep it that way.
Just my opinion.
TD

1jester

I'm afraid I can't offer much useful information, but the collection has all the appearances of being a legitimate set offered by Mother Lode Mint. I recognize a few of the bars as theirs, and have the one with a coin printing press on it (last picture, right page, third row, left side) and mine has a number 00085 on the rear. So maybe mine was also from a set like this one, who knows? I think it's awesome that such a beautiful set has remained together in perfect condition for so long, and personally I would attach a decent premium to it, regardless of silver's present "high" price.

1970SilverArt

The Mother Lode mint silver art bars art bars were minted in the years 1972, 1973, and 1974. A vast majority of the Mother-Lode mint silver art bars were minted in 1973 and most of the Mother-Lode Mint silver art bars are very common minted '70's silver art bars. I do not have the 5th edition Archie Kidd price guide but I have a 4th edition Archie Kidd silver art bar price guide and the 4th edition price guide has the rarity value listed for most of these silver art bars at $5-$10 over spot. However, most silver art bars will not sell at price guide price on ebay.

The "real world" premium that a vast majority of those Mother-Lode mint will sell for on ebay (regular auction format) is between $3 to $5 over spot silver based on the winning bids that I have seen on ebay. There are a few that will fetch a winning bid that is higher than $3 to $5 over spot.

For example, The Mother-Lode mint "Five Dollar Gold" silver art bar might sell for above $5 over spot and as high as $10 over spot based on what I have seen in past ebay auction. Another example is the Mother-Lode Mint "Ten Dollar Gold" silver art bar and that too might fetch a winning bid of above $5 over spot and as high as $10 over spot. The "One Dime" has also fetched winning bids of between $5 to $10 over spot silver in past ebay auctions that I observed.

I looked in the 4th edition Archie Kidd silver art bar price guide and the mintage numbers are unknown for a lot of these Mother-Lode mint bars, however, I strongly suspect that most of these Mother-Lode bars have high mintages because I see a lot of these Mother-Lode mint bars on ebay on a daily basis. I have also found some Mother-Lode mint bars at the local coin dealers and at coin shows in the past. There are a few exceptions.

According to the 4th edition silver art bar guide book, the "12 Days of Christmas" art bars have a mintage of 1000 for each bar of that set. The guide book lists the "Cave Man Coin Club" as having a mintage of only 250. I have never seen the "Cave Man" bar up for auction on ebay. The "cancelled" versions of the Mother-Lode mint bars could also fetch a high premium since "cancelled" press versions typically have very low mintages.

With all of that said, I have never seen a book with all of the Mother-Lode mint bars in them and I have never seen an entire set on ebay.

Buffalode

I got an email just now from the owner who said thanks and the information provided was a big help to him. My thanks also, the amount of information here and the willingness to share it with others is much appreciated as always.

SoCalBigMark

1970SilverArt needs to write a book!