XI. Determining the authenticity of the silver bars.

1. Genuine Silver Bars.
   Hodder's misconstruction of the term “unparted” has allowed the fake gold bars to hide among genuine silver bars. For when it comes to silver bars, we find many pieces with provenances that can be traced back before 1950.
   
   One method to authenticate a silver bar is to find a pre-1950 photograph. This has been possible with one maker: Harvey Harris (Adams 1911). All Harvey Harris bars seen punchlink with this bar, so they are all authentic.
   
   In the Garrett Numismatic Archives, now in the ANS, there is a letter of November 9, 1937 by B. Max Mehl to John W. Garrett, with rubbings attached. One rubbing shows the Blake & Co. silver bar for $20.30, no. 1320, which is now in the Smithsonian Institution. Since the other Blake & Co. silver bars punchlink with this bar, they are genuine.
   
   Collections that have pieces with provenances before 1950 are another source of authentic silver bars. The Garrett collection had two such bars: A. P. Molitor and Knight & Co. The American Numismatic Society has several: the Ward Beecher Mining Company, Harvey Harris, Conrad Wiegand.
   
   Another genuine silver bar is that of Kellogg, Hewston & Co., which was auctioned in the Superior auction of 2/1992. This bar is an almost exact match in its punch styles for the Kellogg & Humbert pieces from the Central America. This bar is certainly genuine; and the distinct punch styles and layouts allow us to authenticate two other bars. One is the gold Kellogg, Hewston & Co. bar, now in the Smithsonian Institution, which has a pedigree back to 1929. This also applies to another silver bar, that of the San Francisco Assaying & Refining Works, also in the Smithsonian; this firm succeeded Kellogg, Hewston in 1866. The silver bar must date after 1868, since it bears no Internal Revenue stamp (Holabird 2001).
   
   Other genuine silver bars are those issued by Van Wyck & Co. These bars have old style numerals, unlike the sans serif numerals used on many of the fake bars; bar number 761 has two notches in the opposite corners, like the bars from the Central America; and bar number 761 also is partially numbered on its reverse, again like the bars from the Central America. Furthermore, number 761 uses a non-standardized version of the Internal Revenue tax stamp, which would be characteristic of the very earliest bars issued after August 30, 1864. Since it gives Van Wyck's address as Nevada Territory, it probably was issued before the end of October 1864, when Nevada became a state - all of which coincides with what we expect from its non-standardized tax stamp.
   
   Special economic circumstances helped silver bars survive in the nineteenth century. The silver bars were stamped at a price of $1.2929 an ounce, but the free market price of silver collapsed from 1873 to 1900. The bars were no longer worth what they were stamped - and they were not worth melting. Since most countries used the gold standard, the value of gold did not move. This is why it is not surprising that genuine silver bars have survived, whereas genuine gold bars have not survived in large numbers, except for those recovered from the Central America.
2. False Silver Bars.
   Two large groups of silver bars emerged onto the market at the same time as the questionable gold bars: those of the Eagle Mining Company and the Thorne Mining and Refining Company. Their sans serif typeface and high fineness (9998 and 999) indicate that they are 1950s products. The Eagle Mining Company uses an eagle as its emblem that is almost an exact match for the eagle design used on U.S. Mint bars in the 1950s (Boosel 1959). Yet the silver bars do not match the fake gold Eagle and Thorne bars. Unlike gold bars, which were under strict Treasury restrictions in the 1950s, silver bars could be made in total openness. So our forger approached silver refineries and had them make silver bars with fantasy names. This gave him bars to sell and a model to copy - when he made the equivalent gold bars. The bars were marketed through the techniques now so familiar to us, such as phony hoard stories.
   
   In the case of the Thorne Mining and Refining Company bars, the story took a bizarre twist. Franklin, who arranged for the bars to be made, and Ford, who marketed the bars, had many disputes; not surprisingly, since Franklin did much of the hot and dirty work, and Ford made most of the money. Ford sold many of the Thorne silver bars at a high mark-up, and Franklin got jealous. Since he did not want to return to the refinery to have them make more fantasy bars, he decided, instead, to make cast copies of one Thorne bar that was left him to him - number 231, and market them through other dealers instead of Ford. In 1954 the market became flooded with copies of the Thorne number 231. At least four different high quality Thorne fakes, all numbered 231, have come to public auction over the last fifty years. To keep Franklin in line, Ford exposed the forgery of the Thorne number 231. This increased Ford's reputation as an authenticator, and allowed Ford to market more bogus bars by playing the “fake of a fake” ruse. (A copy is made that is an obvious fake; it is condemned, and by implication - authenticates the other pieces) (Bowers 1997, 269).