🇺🇸 America the Beautiful 🇺🇸

I am not a stackiholic.
I can stop anytime I want.
I only stack casually.
Only men get stackitus
This is just a phase.
I only buy silver on the weekends.

RIGHT....

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Today I did something I have never done before. I visited my LCS to buy some silver. Now, I have purchased coins from the LCS before. Shiny coins.... New Coins... Pandas and Kooks and Koalas... but today was different.

Today I bought FIVE dirty old bars.

😳

These 1oz art bars are .999 silver issued in 1975 by the Hamilton Mint. The series is known as America the Beautiful. It looks like there was a silver version and a gold plated silver version of these bars. Mine are only silver.

I have always enjoyed learning about America’s history, geography and culture. I think that is what drew me to these bars.

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Now to the nitty gritty.

The side of each bar is engraved with the number 7432.

The front of each bar features a different American landmark or scene.

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The reverse includes the words “America the Beautiful”, along with the silver percentage, mint year and the letters “HM” indicating the bar was produced by the Hamilton Mint. There is also an outline on the United States. The outline contains a description of the scene featured on the front of the bar.

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French Quarter

French Quarter Reverse

American, yet unmistakably foreign, you glimpse through the present into the eighteenth century France in the famous “French Quarter” of New Orleans.

The French Quarter bar is gnarly. It is super toned/tarnished. The bar also seems to have some paper crusted onto the edges.

Am I really not supposed to polish these?

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Covered Bridge

Covered Bridge Reverse

These hardy relics turn back the adamant march of time hundreds of years as they recapture the beauty that was, and still can be, America’s.

I love the detail on this one. You can see each plank on the bridge, the wood knots on the fencing and all the stones next to the water. It looks plucked right out of a Hallmark card.

No polishing? Not even just a little?

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Cliff Dwellings

Cliff Dwellings Reverse

Shrouded in mystery, the cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde provide us with clues about a race of ancient Americans whose saga is all but lost to the ages.

This bar has almost TOO MUCH detail. The picture is a bit hard to read, but it is amazing how each individual brick can be seen on the buildings.

What if I just soak it in silver dip and take it out without scrubbing?

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Devil’s Tower

Devils’s Tower Reverse

Rising hundreds of feet anove the Wyoming prairie, Devil’s Tower is truly one of America’s most awesome geological landmarks.

Close Encouters of the Third Kind anyone?

Maybe I just polish one bar? We can keep it between you and me right?

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Whaling Ship

Whaling Ship Reverse

At the center of a vortex of sea, salt and sperm oil, the early American Whaling ship glides across the windswept oceans of time.

Out of the five bars purchase today, this might be my favorite. I love everything about the big ship (the sails, the way it seems to be moving across the water). Including the second ship in the foreground along with the chain links also adds great depth to the scene. This is also the least toned of the bars. I am drawn to the shiny. ☺️

The front is so shiny, it would just take the tiniest bit of polish for the back to match.

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In all seriousness, any recommendations on how to get the crusted paper off the edge of the bars? Soak them in water? Try a little rubbing alcohol? Paper adds character just leave it be?

I hope this secondhand stack viewing has helped to relieve any untreated stackitus flare ups.

HAPPY STACKING!

🇺🇸 ❤️ 🇺🇸 💙 🇺🇸 ❤️ 🇺🇸

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Proud member of:

steemsugars and steemusa