"Collectible" lead ingots

[kevin c]

So I'm just starting out casting and am scrounging lead. Picked up a couple of six sided ingots at an estate sale of a fisherman who apparently cast his own sinkers. They're stamped SELBY on top, with "FIVE FOLD" stamped above and below the name. Seems like soft lead, but I'm new to the game.

Today I enter the name into Google to see if there is any content info available, click on the first link, and proceed to spew my Cheerios.

A collectors site lists a lead ingot from the same company (with a little history that says SELBY turned into ASARCO which is now out of the precious and base metals biz) of a different shape (bullion bar trapezoid, with measurements making it about 5# of lead) that the seller claims is probably 140 years old. This particular item sold for $1,200 (yes, that's one thousand two hundred US bucks).

Hitting other sites (flea bay) I find listings for the hexagonal ingots identical to mine, described as "vintage" (ASARCO bought out SELBY in 1905) and asking 35 dollars. Interest though, seems light. I found a thread here that mentioned the same shape ingots, but stamped ASARCO FIVE FOLD and with no mention of anything other than lead content.

Who'd a thought lead could be "collectible". Sure would be nice to have a couple antique ingots worth more than 2K. Shucks, even $70 dollars for the two would buy me some nice certified alloy. It's also good, though, to have picked up ten pounds of plumber's lead for the four bucks I paid.

So, what do you all think? Valuable antique or boolit material?

[NyFirefighter357]

$5 worth of lead I have a pile of old hexagon ingots. lol

[Jack Stanley]

Put it on the auction and see what happens ......................... after to make an ingot mold the exact shape and size

Jack

[JBinMN]

OK.. Ya want to make boolits, or $$.


Seriously... Find another lead source for what ya want to make boollits with & research your find. If there are folks who want to pay a lot of $$ for those "ingots". Make them happy & yourself happy... & sell them for what they want to pay for them.

Whatever ya do..

G'luck!

[SWANEEDB]

So I'm just starting out casting and am scrounging lead. Picked up a couple of six sided ingots at an estate sale of a fisherman who apparently cast his own sinkers. They're stamped SELBY on top, with "FIVE FOLD" stamped above and below the name. Seems like soft lead, but I'm new to the game.

Today I enter the name into Google to see if there is any content info available, click on the first link, and proceed to spew my Cheerios.

A collectors site lists a lead ingot from the same company (with a little history that says SELBY turned into ASARCO which is now out of the precious and base metals biz) of a different shape (bullion bar trapezoid, with measurements making it about 5# of lead) that the seller claims is probably 140 years old. This particular item sold for $1,200 (yes, that's one thousand two hundred US bucks).

Hitting other sites (flea bay) I find listings for the hexagonal ingots identical to mine, described as "vintage" (ASARCO bought out SELBY in 1905) and asking 35 dollars. Interest though, seems light. I found a thread here that mentioned the same shape ingots, but stamped ASARCO FIVE FOLD and with no mention of anything other than lead content.

Who'd a thought lead could be "collectible". Sure would be nice to have a couple antique ingots worth more than 2K. Shucks, even $70 dollars for the two would buy me some nice certified alloy. It's also good, though, to have picked up ten pounds of plumber's lead for the four bucks I paid.

So, what do you all think? Valuable antique or boolit material?

Want to know more about "SELBY", late 1800's early 1900's Selby was a shotshell maker, some of those boxes have brought 'big' dollars, and I mean $1000.00's. Have fun looking it up. Not sure as age has kinda done my memory in but do think at one time their was a town in Cal by the name 'Selby. They even may made their own shot from a 'shot tower'.

[RedRiver]

Sell it, let the market decide the price. You won't lose money, that's for sure.

[kevin c]

http://www.tormeyclan.com/tormey-ca.htm

The site above came up with the Selby Google search. Swaneedb, your memory's still good - there was a company town in the San Francisco Bay Area (where I live - pity me...) that served the Selby smelters and shipping operation. The area still goes by the name, but ASARCO closed the plant and even razed the company town buildings back in the 70's.

I've got plenty of other lead, so I'll keep these ingots as conversation pieces and/or part of my retirement plan ;^D

[Walter Laich]

....I'll keep these ingots as conversation pieces and/or part of my retirement plan ;^D

My retirement plan is wonderful...

as long as I don't live past next Thursday

[SWANEEDB]

[QUOTE=kevin c;4057834][url]http://www.tormeyclan.com/tormey

Thanks Kevin, really enjoyed the read. At one time I did have a lot of reference material on 'early American explosive industries', S.F. bay area really had their share. Another was the "California Powder Works", Santa Cruz. Is now called "Paridise Park", I think that is what it called. I was invited to a lunch there in the mid 70's, is owned by a lodge, forget which one, amazing area for the history buffs. CPW was also the inventors of "Smokeless Powder".

[kevin c]

A bit more local history: CPW and DuPont built the dynamite factory and company town that became Hercules Powder Company after the antitrust action that broke up DuPont. The city of Hercules is just three or four miles down the coast from Selby.

Apparently both industries moved to the East BAy for the same reasons: they were not welcome in San Francisco, the lead refining plant for the smoke and smell, and the dynamite factory for the concerns over major kabooms. The land moved to was way out in the sticks a century or so ago. The original CPW dynamite factory was located in what is now Golden Gate Park.

[lightman]

I've melted down a few ingots of plumbers lead and even a stick of bar solder or two that I wish I had kept. But you can only collect some much stuff!

[sargenv]

I have a solder bar marked "Selby" that I picked up as a collection piece a few years ago.. Selby is just down the road from Rodeo... The old Lead Smelting land next to the bay was capped off and asphalted as a superfund site back in the 70's and I believe is used by the Phillips 66 refinery as a parking lot now and then.

[RedJackson]

Ebay is calling.

[HATCH]

I would just make a ingot mold and start making my own at $1200 a pop

[RogerDat]

List it on eBay, worst that can happen is you don't sell it for mad loot and just make mad bullets from it or keep it as a bench conversation piece. You can spray that clear sealer used on charcoal drawings on lead to seal it and make it safer to handle.

Hmmm, I too have some of those hex ingots, will have to go read them now since you got me all in a lather with your tale of big bucks for lead.