Although there are anomalies, collector Will Rossman best explains what an art bar is:
"A silver art bar … may be defined as an ingot that has a standard weight, is artistic in nature and usually is of limited edition.
"Although variations in weight and fineness have occurred, the standard art bar contains 1 ounce of .999 fine silver."
According to Rossman in the January 1986 issue of the American Numismatic Association journal, The Numismatist, when the United States was taken off of the silver standard in 1964 by the federal government and metal prices fluctuated, "silver producers sought ways to promote public interest and ownership."
The collectors of silver art bars consider the genesis of their exonumic pursuit to be in 1968 when Foster and Co., a company in Walla Walla, Wash., produced the first such set of bars, or ingots, depicting silver mines from the American West.
The six-piece set comprised 3-ounce ingots composed of .999 fine silver. The company followed its inaugural release with another six-piece set, in 1969, titled "The Eagle's Nest."
This set featured pieces in four different shapes - round, square, rectangular and octagonal - with eagles in different poses. The pieces in the set ranged in weight from a quarter-ounce to 10 ounces of .999 fine silver.
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Photo courtesy Ken Potter/www.koinpro.com.
SILVER A170RT bars, beginning with obverse at top left, with corresponding reverse below, Taj Mahal, 1974, United States Silver Corporation, mintage 4,300; Unite for Peace, 1973, United States Silver Corporation, mintage 4,700; Teddy (cancelled die), Greathouse Productions, mintage 20; Ronald Reagan, Greathouse Productions, mintage 125; William Jennings Bryan, Condemning the Crime of '73, struck for Ken Potter by Mount Everest Mint, 975 minted normal, 25 canceled dies.
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As a standard, the silver art bars are usually rectangular, have raised rims and rounded corners and are struck in Proof quality.
There are exceptions, depending on the issuer and the private minting facility that produced them.
The issuer and the private mint is, in some instances, the same. In some cases, prolific issuers of silver art bars subcontracted the actual production and designs.
Some of the art bars may be serially numbered or otherwise marked to indicate how many bars were issued. Sometimes, the only mintage information available upon release of an art bar was in the informational brochures sent to distributors or to the collectors themselves.
A wide range of design and design styles can be found on the bars.
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Photo courtesy Thomas D. Rogers Sr.
FORMER U.S. MINT Sculptor Engraver Thomas D. Rogers Sr. designed this five-ounce .999 fine silver art bar for The Pacific County Friends of Lewis and Clark, a nonprofit organization devoted to commemorating the bicentennial of the Lewis and Clark journey and the Corps of Discovery, with special emphasis on the 18 days they spent in Pacific County, Wash.
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The main design on some art bars is oriented vertically instead of horizontally on the bar. Many silver art bars bear the primary design on the obverse, or face, with the reverse or back often devoted to information about mintage, fineness, the issuer, or a logo or hallmark of the issuer or manufacturer.
Some art bars come enameled (after striking) in a multitude of colors to coincide with the theme reflected on the bar. For example, a bar showing a rose in bloom may feature the rose enameled in red and the branch and leaves in green.
A collector may choose to collect different silver art bars based on the intricacy of the design or other aesthetics.
A collector may also opt to collect topically; that is, only seeking bars bearing designs reflecting a particular theme, such as planes, trains, automobiles, famous people or political causes, as examples.
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All images courtesy of Garrett and Michelle Burke.
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Silver art bars can be found advertised in numismatic publications, including the display and classified advertising pages in Coin World, as well as general circulation periodicals.
The limited-edition bars range in numbers from less than 100 to several thousand, depending on the theme and the year in which the bar was issued.
A large number of generic bars bear designs for special occasions, holidays, birthdays and other events, and are issued on a continuing basis by a number of private mints.
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In 1970, the Franklin Mint in Pennsylvania began making and issuing its own ingots, albeit in .925 fine sterling silver rather than the more traditional .999 fine silver.
Each of the introductory ingots weighed 1,000 grains, or roughly 2.27 ounces. That year, the Franklin Mint issued its first Christmas ingot, which became an annual issue for many years, and also struck a silver ingot fabricated from the last lot of surplus U.S. Treasury silver.
The Franklin Mint, which no longer issues the bars or other numismatic items, produced dealer guides illustrating the various ingots produced and listing the year of issue and the number of pieces issued.
Upon their release, the art bars of the Franklin Mint and other private issuers were offered at considerable premiums above the intrinsic value of the precious metals they contained.
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However, when the price of silver on the world market hit record highs in late 1979 and early 1980, an untold number of these issues, now worth considerably more for their melt value than their collector value, were sent to the melting pots.
There's no way to determine how many of the original mintage of the early silver art bars still exist.
Collectors seeking information on silver art bars have various sources. Several reference books are available on the subject of silver art bar collecting.
Two reference books are Silver Art Bars: An Indexed Guide Book of 1-ounce .999 Fine Silver for the Collector and the Investor by J. Archie Kidd and Tom R. Greathouse, and An Indexed Guide Book of Silver Art Bars for the Collector and Investor, edited and published by J. Archie Kidd.
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Several editions of the reference books long out of print exist, but collectors may have to contact a numismatic book dealer or the International Association of Silver Art Collectors to find a copy.
The International Association of Silver Art Collectors, founded in 1985, is devoted to collecting the bars and preserving the history behind the bars.
IASAC can be contacted in writing at P.O. Box 28415, Seattle, WA 98118 or via e-mail to IsascNancy@cs.com.
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