(ca. 1870s) Silver City, Idaho. A.L. Simondi Assayer Ingot. Mixed metal, Gold and Silver. 6.00 ounces (2849.9 grains, actual weight). Face Value: $7.55. Extremely Fine.55.6 mm x 28.8 mm x 11.2 mm. A simple but handsomely made little bar with neatly squared edges and no cooling depression, this apparently filed smooth before marks were applied on the face and back. On the face is the identity of the assayer, in three lines, in horizontal arrangement, A.L. SIMONDI / ASSAYER / SILVER CITY, IDAHO. On the back is the number, fineness of gold and silver and market value of each metal. Thin borderlines applied to each marked side frame the designs. There are no other ornamentations. Slight rounding of the corner points, a couple of small edge nicks and other scattered marks consistent with the typical handling of such a piece. Reeding marks from coins are noted on two edges.<p><p>We do not recall having seen another ingot from this assayer, which is obviously very rare. In fact, this bar is possibly unique by this issuer. Simondi was married in Portland, Oregon, January 4, 1869 to Olga Grob of that city, but the marriage record notes that Simondi himself was from Silver City, Idaho, which is now a ghost town. There are few historical records that include him, but he is recorded as being a member of the lower house of the 6th Legislative Assembly (1870-1871) in a list of Idaho Territorial officers, placing him back in Silver City by this time. The next record we have of him reports that his firm was "succeeded by R. Euler" at Silver City, in the September 1882 edition of <em>The Bankers Magazine, </em>prompting our tentative dating of this ingot to the 1870s. <p><p>After Euler took over the Simondi firm, it seems that Simondi relocated to Weiser, Idaho, about 125 miles north, about the same time or shortly thereafter. In 1886, he was identified as a "Weiser assayer" who reported a 2,000 ounce silver sample in August 1886, discovered in a remote area around Thunder Mountain, in the far southern part of the state. It is clear that he was still active, but this bar is clearly from his Silver City days.<p>
