At the shop yesterday we poured a few bars, one using 18 maple leafs...one using 14 buffalo rounds...and one I had been wanting to pour for myself for a long while now...a Morgan silver dollar bar ( Just waited till I had 7 poor condition Morgans from the 1800's, nothing past 1900 )
I hammer finished the 2 larger bars, and just left the Morgan bar as poured...labeled the Morgan bar as .900 Coin silver Morgan with the weight ( It actually tested out after pouring, on the Precious Metal Verifier...as dead center on the 90% scale...which made me very happy because of this description on the Precious Metal Verifiers FAQ page
1) US Morgans: some read as 90% silver and some don't, even from the same year and mint. Some mints are very good (Carson City) and some are quite variable (San Francisco). Generally older ones are more variable. Lead seems to have been a key contaminant that produced this variability.
Even though all 7 tested fine before melting, I was a little concerned what the amalgamation would test as after pouring...it was fine . It was just something I wanted to make myself on a personal level.
We took a video of the Maple Leaf pour, 3 things...
1. My friend pouring the bar this time will NOT wear safety equipment, I bought face shields, kevlar gloves...boot covers...the whole 9 yards...but he wont wear anything ( He does use one of the kevlar gloves at the end, just to grab the handle )
2. He forgot to turn up the oxygen on the torch prior to the melt, it had been set to a lower level for jewelry repair...thats why in the beginning it is taking longer to melt the coins.
3. My dumbass had never taken video with the phone, so it's sideways.....
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ksVS27 … e=youtu.be
Here are the bars, the 2 larger bars in the middle are the ones poured yesterday....the one second from the bottom is the bar poured in the video...it ended up 17.96 troy oz's from 18 maple Leaf coins. ( The Silver gods take a little in the smoke )
The Morgan bar is the one off to the right....
