RENO, Nev. – An 1859 document dating to the beginning of the Comstock Lode silver rush in the U.S. and including mention of the most important mining claim – the Ophir – sold for $16,875 at a four-day Big Bonanza auction held March 30 through April 2 by Holabird Western Americana Collections, LLC.

The Comstock Lode was a lode of silver ore located under the eastern slope of Mount Davidson in Virginia City, Nevada (then western Utah Territory). It was the first major discovery of silver ore in the United States and was named after American miner Henry Comstock. The 1859 discovery sparked a big silver rush of prospectors to the area, all scrambling to stake their claims.

The document – a handwritten deed on blue paper – was datelined “Ophir Diggings, Utah Territory, U.S., Sept. 17, 1859,” just 11 days later the San Francisco Daily Alta California would announce a name change from Ophir Diggings to Virginia City. The document also mentioned those dubbed the Comstock Lode’s “Founding Fathers”: Comstock, McLaughlin, Osborn, Penrod and Walsh.

The auction overall contained more than 2,000 lots in categories that included mining, philatelic, numismatic, railroad, and Native Americana. Because the auction featured Part 1 of what Fred Holabird called “the best Comstock mining collection ever to hit the market,” the auction name was chosen to honor the so-called “Big Bonanza” ore discovery in Virginia City, Nevada, made in 1873.

Part 1 focused on mining stock certificates, ore specimens, ephemera and publications, most of which were offered on Day 4 of the auction. That sale session also featured a Comstock “Wash-Oh!” illustrated lettersheet from 1860, drawn and engraved by TC Boyd with a vignette showing a natty prospector or mine investor about to meet the devil in a cornucopia. It brought $5,750.

Shifting back to the Day 1 session, held on March 30, railroad and steamer ship collectibles were a big hit. Top lots included a Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers pin badge with six stones (an emerald, a ruby and four diamonds), issued to Oscar L. Crockett, a conductor from 1873-1891. The piece sold for $1,625.

Other Day 1 standouts included a two-page letter written by baseball legend Connie Mack in 1949 on letterhead from the American Base Ball Club of Philadelphia, discussing black players and mentioning Ty Cobb and Stuffy McInnis, which realized $1,800; and a collection of six Oklahoma I. T. crown top bottles that went for $3,000.

Day 2, on March 31, featured a total of 548 lots and was dominated by old, visually arresting stock certificates, including the following:

Stock certificate No. 9 for the Colorado-Philadelphia Reduction Company, dated Aug. 14, 1899 in the amount of 33,250 shares. It had been issued to Charles Penrose, an officer of the company, and signed by two other officers, Charles Tutt and Charles MacNeill. It achieved $2,125.

Stock certificate No. 2288 for the Sierra Nevada Silver Mining Company (incorporated when the Comstock was still part of the Utah Territory), datelined San Francisco 1866, issued to Thomas Quinn for 10 shares and signed by officers. It brought $750.

The Day 3 session, on April 1, featured Native Americana, numismatics (including Nevada banknotes); and philatelic material (Express and U.S. covers, U.S. stamps; and foreign stamps and covers); 531 lots in all. Among the standouts were a Copley & Company Miner’s Express cover, with a Red Miner’s Express oval at the top left and a blue Oct. 1 circle at the bottom left, and a 10-cent green and white entire U17, which attained $2,375. The express only ran for about a year, from 1855 to 1856.

A U.S. $10,000 gold certificate (Fr. 1225), cancelled and not redeemable, printed in Washington, D.C. and dated May 3, 1917, with the signatures of Teehee and Burke as register and treasurer, rose to $2,875. In the Native American category, a circa-1870s-1880s beaded buckskin vest made for a small child, the buckskin base fully lazy-stitched with red, blue, green and turquoise glass beads, reached $2,375.

A U.S. gold piece struck at the Philadelphia mint in 1947 for the Arab American Oil Company (ARAMCO), as payment to the Saudi Arabian government for its oil rights, realized $2,770; and a gold coin minted in Santiago, Chile in 1792 for eight Escudos, one of 38,000 minted, made $2,250.

To consign a single piece or a collection to Holabird Western Americana Collections, LLC, call Fred Holabird at 775-851-1859 or 844-492-2766; or email to fredholabird@gmail.com. To learn more about Holabird Western Americana Collections, visit www.holabirdamericana.com.

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