A vintage find…..

about 2 years ago

Afternoon everyone….

It is difficult these days to find vintage silver rounds and bars, because they are being gobbled up by so many. But it’s even harder to find one in its original packaging in absolutely pristine condition.

I snagged this round in action last week, it was just delivered yesterday afternoon. Luckily most people do not know about this mint, so it was me and one other person going for it. I did a sniper bid at the end to win it.

There’s not a ton of information out there on this mint. What I do know is that there were less than 2,000 of these minted. How many survived the smelting pots?

Their main business was extracting silver from X-Ray films. Which they produced into 100 ounce bars. They made two different style rounds, this one and one with a dragon on the reverse. That one has a know mintage of less then 500.

Here is a little history on them:

Tri State Refining was a mint based in South Dakota which began operating around 1976 and continued through the early 1982. It re-incorporated under the name Tri-State Mint in 1988 and merged with Von Hoff International to become Medallic Art Company LTD in 1996. That company, originally the famed Medallic Art Company begun in New York in 1903, had been purchase by Robert Hoff in 1989. It dissolved in 2012

In 1976, Lorentz Opdahl started a small business extracting silver from X-ray and other film products (Tri-State) near Hudson, South Dakota. Robert Hoff, who was married to Opdahl's daughter, managed Tri-State Refining. Opdahl approached Hoff in 1980 concerning the purchase of Tri-State and Hoff purchased the business. The agreement included payments in silver as well as monthly payments and rental property arrangements. In February 1981, Hoff incorporated the Tri-State business. Tri-State continued to make monthly rental payments as some of the business remained on the leased property.

Conflicts arose between Opdahl and Hoff resulting in contract breaches. Tri-State experienced financial difficulties in 1981 and Hoff suspected these difficulties stemmed from internal problems and hired a private investigator. This investigation led to a 1982 confession by an employee that silver had been stolen from Tri-State and that Opdahl had been a party to that. Lawsuits were filed, but the mint was unable to continue operations due to the financial difficulties.

This round was produced in 1980 as well as the dragon one. They also have one ounce bars out there, which are low mintage as well. If you see these at your LCS, it would be wise to pick them up.