what did i get

[redriverhunter]

found two of these at a garage sale for 5 bucks
245416

[JonB_in_Glencoe]

Looks like a pure Lead Ingot.
I have some "National Lead" 5 lb ingots that are Hex shaped, just like that one.

[redriverhunter]

thanks for the reply. looked good could not pass it up.

[Mitch]

Yep looks like old plumbers lead ingots should be pure.not a bad find

[NyFirefighter357]

The Selby company was acquired in 1905, dating the ingot back to at least then.

The ingot measures 3 3/8" wide at the base, 3" wide at the top, and is 1 3/4" tall, and is in the shape of an octagon.

Selby Five Fold Lead Bar Ingot was made between 1850 - 1905 by the
THOMAS H. SELBY & CO. San Francisco, California.

I see those ingots getting more than $20ea on fleabay

A Selby (5lb?) trapezoid ingot sold for $1,200

Thomas Selby was born in New York in 1820. He became a ‘49er, coming to San Francisco in August, 1849, with the intention of making enough money to pay off the debts he incurred in partnership with his brother in a failed business venture in New York. In 1850 he built one of the first large-scale brick buildings in San Francisco and placed his business of Thomas H. Selby & Co. in it. His partner was Peter Naylor of New York. Selby led an active life in local politics, ultimately elected as Mayor of San Francisco. His metals business flourished, and by the end of the 1850’s he was the largest non-precious metals dealer on the West Coast. That distinction continued, and as important lead-silver ore deposits were discovered at Cerro Gordo, Eureka and elsewhere in California and Nevada, Selby was the one who could process these metals competitively, better than the Mint system, who did not want base metals such as lead.

The company grew greatly after his death in 1875, quickly becoming the largest precious and base metals refinery in California. They built a new smelter on the east bay (today known as Rodeo) that became an industry giant. The company sold out eventually to ASARCO.

Selby ingots have been produced since the 1850’s but few remain. This lead ingot is of such an old style, that it has a distinct possibility of being one of the few from the 1850’s or 60’s. By 1870, lead ingots were large “pigs” generally weighing about 100 pounds. Only one silver Selby ingot is known, and that piece is thought to be from the circa 1900-1920 period.


https://www.icollector.com/San-Francisco-CA-c1870-Selby-Lead-Ingot_i9799270

[Winger Ed.]

Those were sold for Plumbing back in the days of pouring Lead joints putting cast Iron sewer pipes together.

Selby Smelting and Lead Co. was around from 1852 till 1976 in Calif.
They also had a shot tower, and refined Gold, Silver, and Lead.

With a declining market for Lead, old style smelters & equipment, and the new generation EPA laws-
with all that happening at once, that's probably what shut them down.

[samari46]

I've found both octogon and regular ingot style plumbers ingots at our local scrap yard. One day the guys got a good laugh as I climbed into one of those 4'x4' super heavy duty containers just to grab the ingots. I always spent more than I got for scrap as I usually checked out the brass and lead containers. Found a couple brass/bronze small engine propellers and filed,sanded,and polished them up. Showed them to a friend who offered me $100 for the both of them. His den had a nautical theme so fit right in. Frank

[NyFirefighter357]

I have a few ingots in different shapes

https://i.imgur.com/YAnT3Pfm.jpg

[Don1357]

I have a few ingots in different shapes

https://i.imgur.com/YAnT3Pfm.jpg

My daughter says i waste my good luck on dumb stuff and that this is why we don't hit the lottery. I got a bucket of those at the local scrap yard for .60c a pound. When i got home i found about 8 pounds of 50/50 bars and rolls of solder. I'm thinking of dropping that lot on the bay so I can turn it into even more lead.

[kevin c]

In my limited experience, all are five pounds regardless of shape. Is that what you've found?

[NyFirefighter357]

In my limited experience, all are five pounds regardless of shape. Is that what you've found?

Yes, there about & the attached 5 ingots are 25lb pigs

[Mitch]

now i need to go look thru my stash lol

[RogerDat]

I'm pretty sure the EPA didn't shut them down back in 1905, the company was purchased from what the post on the companies history was saying. Lead is cheaper to smelt in other countries, partly just because labor and building costs are cheaper, and of course no health and safety regulations save money too.

I also think that we don't use nearly as much lead as we once did in manufacturing. It was the plastic of its day. Used for roof boots, liner in showers, pipes, under ground cable sheathing etc. With our fairly robust scrap industry it would not surprise me that there isn't the demand to require we smelt ore to meet it. Those big 4x4 pallet boxes full may well meet the much of the need. BTW - a 5 gallon bucket outside the box and another inside can make that climb in and out of the box much easier. Especially if the box is mostly empty. And way down there is that lump you just gotta have. :-)

I will generally snag those when I find them. That and the blocks and sheet used for xray room shielding are as good as it gets for "pure" lead. May well want to explore if they have more value as collectors items than as lead. I mean at $20 each you could turn 10# into 40# of lead with the money.

[GregLaROCHE]

To me there’s just something about lead. I enjoy collecting range scrap and casting two pound ingots as much as other parts of reloading. I like to see my stack of ingots getting bigger and bigger.

[Don1357]

I recently sold two of those at $4 a pound on eBay. I listed a similar lot of Northwestern ingots/pucks at $3/pound that are not moving. I'm about to list similar lots of bunker hill and Copher pucks. So far it looks like the Selby ones are the ones with a collector premium?

Anyways... dump them one eBay, use the money to quadruple your lead.

[kevin c]

The Selby that went for over a thousand was an old style, gold bar shaped ingot, not the more common plumbers lead ingot. But if Firefighter's research is right (and I don't doubt it since it confirms and elaborates on the little I found out myself) the octagonal ingots are over a hundred years old and even at only twenty dollars each, like Don said, they are worth four times the value of the lead content. I'll hang on to the couple I have, since I have other pure lead that I don't think has collector value.

[dondiego]

Who collects lead? Sheesh! That's crazy!

[Don1357]

Well I asked the buyer, hoping for a reason like civil war or cowboy reenactment (meaning a steady demand for them) but in this case the wife last name is Selby and they wanted it as a door stopper :-/

I'll post a few more of these "vintage" ingots/pucks at $3~$4 a pound and report back on how they did.

[RogerDat]

Who collects lead? Sheesh! That's crazy!Well no one around here that's for sure! We are way past collecting and pretty much setting the bar on hoarding lead.

[Teemu]

Well no one around here that's for sure! We are way past collecting and pretty much setting the bar on hoarding lead.

+1 yup. I take whatever i can and whenever i can. Except battery lead....Because lead wont go bad like milk etc. Only get oxidation. Fearing some day "they" ban this metal...

[dondiego]

Well no one around here that's for sure! We are way past collecting and pretty much setting the bar on hoarding lead.

Yea, I am definitely not a lead collector............hoarder is an appropriate term!