Photo Credit: Coin-Exchange-NY
Old Poured 1 Kilo Johnson Matthey Silver Bar
Buy It Now Price: $798.78 (price as of 2017; item no longer available)
Pros:
-This impressive, old 1 kilo Johnson Matthey silver bar is a poured, .999 fine, precious metal masterpiece made by Johnson Matthey Canada, most likely in the 1980s.
-Johnson Matthey, along with Engelhard, was the most well known and respected name in precious metal refining during the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s.
-In 2015, Johnson Matthey exited the precious metal refining business by selling its refining subsidiary to a Japanese competitor, Asahi Refining. Asahi Refining currently produces silver bars under the Asahi nameplate, having discontinued the Johnson Matthey brand.
-It is always nice to be able to pick up a vintage silver bar with an individual serial number! While serialization was fairly uncommon on classic silver bars fabricated in the 1970s and 1980s, it is almost never done today due to cost constraints. Certain poured silver bars from Yeager’s Poured Silver, a contemporary artisan specialty fabricator, are an interesting exception to this rule.
-If there ever was a blue-chip investment in vintage silver bars, this 1 kilo Johnson Matthey silver bar is it. Not only was it made by one of the premier precious metal refiners, but, in my opinion, it is also nearly the ideal size for a silver bar. Vintage silver bars weighing between 20 troy ounces and 1 kilo (32.1507 troy ounces), offer a perfect combination of impressive size, substantial heft and reasonable pricing not available in smaller or larger bars.
-1 kilo vintage silver bars are generally scarcer than other sizes, such as 5, 10 or 100 troy ounce bars. It is estimated that this old 1 kilo Johnson Matthey silver bar had a mintage of less than 3,000 pieces. This is a very modest mintage, and is substantially less than many other popular vintage silver bars.
-With silver trading at $17.10 per troy ounce, this poured 1 kilo Johnson Matthey silver bar has an intrinsic value of about $550. This represents a premium of 45.3%, or about $7.75 per troy ounce, over the spot price of silver. I think the asking price of $799 is quite fair considering the history, character and gravitas of this classic silver bar.
Cons:
-Vintage 100 troy ounce Johnson Matthey poured silver bars are readily available in the marketplace for much smaller premiums over bullion value than this 1 kilo Johnson Matthey silver bar. They generally only cost 5% to 12% over melt value, but that is because they are much more common, with mintages for some series ranging from 50,000 to 500,000. In addition, these 100 troy ounce behemoths are a little too large for most collectors; each one is the size of a small brick and tips the scales at almost 7 pounds.
-10 or 15 years ago you might have been able to pick up this old 1 kilo Johnson Matthey silver bar for only a $1 or $2 per ounce over spot. But vintage silver bullion bars have since developed a devoted collector base. I’m afraid the days of buying these wonderful old poured silver bars for close to spot price are gone forever.
