Definition

• Cast bar of gold, silver, or some mixture of the two, stamped with weight, composition, and assayer's and/or owner's identification; sometimes with an odd denomination like $36.55 rather than an even one like $50. Gambling casinos accepted these as money, but in later years such ingots stopped circulating. The date of a given ingot may be deducible only from the recorded years of the assayer's operations; that of ingots from Philadelphia or branch mints only from the style of their stamps. Knowledge in this area is only fragmentary.

Source

• Breen Encyclopedia

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