I was recently able to get back down to Iowa and one of my honey holes where I tend to find a lot of vintage silver. There's a great LCS down there but it's only open on days at the market is open. This makes it difficult for me is I have to get down there during the week Monday through Friday when there isn't a bank holiday. I need to get down there more as they have some really good stuff most of the time and I enjoy picking it up.
This time was no different as I picked up several rounds and bars. I picked up I think 8 oz in total, and I decided to pick up two of most of the rounds. Even those I already had some back at home that I could remember.
Collection Highlights -
Here I'm going to feature Tri-State refining rounds. While I have some of these already, the ones I have at home appear to be a bit worse off and a bit more heavily tarnished. Not sure if these were freshly dipped in silver cleaner or just happen to look that good after all these years but they looked immaculate.
For a mint that was not open for very long, from what it looks like to be 1976 to 1982, and then rerun in 1982 after parts of it was sold I sure do find these fairly often. I'm not sure if it's a geographical regional thing or if they're everywhere.
Tri-State refining is a another classic mint that started off in the late seventies in someone's hobby of extracting silver from X-ray and film products in South Dakota. Like many small businesses there was some family drama which led to contract breaches, accusations of theft and financial difficulties that ultimately led to the closure.
If I read the information right, these rounds were made during the orginal run, and again were reproduced in 1988. I am unclear if the 1988 run under Tri state mint had the exact same design or if it was different.
Obverse
I'm going to call this the obverse, and I think it's a pretty good looking one. This is similar to the other round that I favored for it s clean presentation and stamping. It's very similar to the southeast refining round I posted last week in how it represents and stamps everything on it. I love seeing the mint stamp down there, along with the weight and the fineness. Only thing better would be a year.
Reverse
I'm starting to think in this time period, the only way you could make a silver round was if you put an eagle and a bell on the back. Not sure if it had to do with the 200 year anniversary, but everything seemed to be eagle and Liberty Bell related and very patriotic themes and callbacks.
These two rounds added to my other stash will make a fair number of them. I'm not sure exactly how many as I probably need to go back through and reorganize to get like with like, but that's not that important right now. When I find them as I dig through for more vintage I'll pull them out and put them with these.
The next three rounds I picked up, are new to me and I'm excited to share them. A couple of them might be special.