Assay
ingots were the preferred form of shipping California Gold to banks, businesses,
and the U.S. government. Most of the assay bars were formed from the gold
extracted by the tens of thousands of miners working the streams and rivers
of the California Territory. Miners took their dust and nuggets, the very
fruit of their backbreaking labor, to the assaying company for weighing and
valuation. The assayer would then melt the miner's gold down and "run" or
pour molten gold into molds. Once these rectangular bars cooled, a sample
was cut from one corner for testing. The bar would then be stamped with the
weight in ounces, a serial number, the fineness (in thousandths - expressed
as 903 = 903 / 1000th pure gold), and usually the value in gold (set at $20.67
per ounce). No attempt was made by the assayers to change the purity of the
gold in the bars. The most important stamp on the ingot is the assayer's hallmark
stamp (or maker's mark).
A
disreputable firm, or even the rumor that an assay company's bars were not
"full weight" could spell the demise of an assaying company. The reputation
of an assayer was the company's true value to the community. Reports of an
assayer's valuations coming in short of their stated face value would spread
through the streets and mining camps like wildfire, immediately impacting
the assayers business and frequently leading to the demise of the firm. (It
was not uncommon for competing assayers to pass rumors about the valuations
of other firms!)
Firms that established a solid reputation were rewarded with the unquestioned acceptance of their bars by banks and businesses at the stamped value. The various branches of the U.S. Mint provided confirmation of the assay values and finesses. The assayer paid any difference to their customers - as explicitly advertised by the assayer.
The
ingots would then be returned to their owner. Usually the gold was returned
within twenty-four hours, less the shaved corner, which represented the portion
that was removed for testing and was kept as a commission by the assayer (usually
about one quarter of one percent.)
A reputable assayer was paramount to the development of the local community. Miners could get good funds for their labor within 24 hours of submitting their gold. The local merchants, banks, saloons, and even the gambling parlors (complete with all of the wicked vices of the time) could reap the benefits of money literally extracted from the gold fields one day and spent the very next!
Most of these assay ingots were destined to secure bank reserves or become gold coinage at a U.S. Mint facility. In September of 1857, gold assay ingots (including the golden behemoth "Eureka"), coins, nuggets, and dust were loaded onto the SS Central America, bound for New York. However, fate dealt the "Eureka" and this massive golden treasure a different hand.
