HPM is another well known vintage hallmark that you don’t see a lot of anymore. The company operated out of Seattle, WA in the 1970s. Not a lot of information available, unfortunately. These are typically found in 10 oz class. The 1 and 5 oz varieties are extremely scarce.

Here are a few more great examples that Brian R. shared for this post, including a first gen 10 oz class HPM. Very cool.

Hoffman and Hoffman is a favorite for vintage collectors. Just an iconic hallmark which is an “Alchemy” symbol. They made bars ranging from 5 to 100 oz and are known for their cool old vintage rounds with the “Alchemy” symbol and “Unicorn.” They are unique in many ways from the flat 5 oz rare pour to the 10 oz that has the fine circular marks that many show from the way they did the pour. Look closely at the pics to see what I’m referring to.

The 5 oz class are the most scarce as far as Hoffman and Hoffman ingots go. They fetch very high premiums.

Here is a stubby 5 oz example that I own.

And now the finale…the family photo.

Harringtons ingots are right up there at the top of my favorites list. I’m a huge fan of the beauty and care that went into producing these — the pour lines on Harringtons bars are some of the finest you’ll find on any vintage silver.

Harringtons Metallurgists Pty Ltd was an Australian refiner based near Melbourne. Collector accounts date their start to the 1970s, and they were still pouring into the 90s — they earned LBMA accreditation in 1991, and Golden West Refining Corporation acquired the company’s assets in 1995, which marked the end of the line.

Their cast ingots came in a wide range of sizes: 5 oz, 10 oz, 50 oz, 100 oz, and metric classes from 500 grams up to 2500 grams. They’re stamped FINE SILVER, BULLION 9998 with the circular Harringtons logo, and many carry serial numbers — dated examples from 1982 are documented. Watch for DCL (Darlington Commodities) and RHA (Robert Howes & Associates) counterstamps on the larger bars; those are the genuinely scarce variants.

Harringtons also offered refining services to the public, pouring odd-weight ingots from customer-supplied scrap silver. Those pieces typically lack serial numbers, so an unnumbered odd-weight Harringtons is likely one of these private-refining bars rather than a standard production piece.

They are some of the most sought after pieces in vintage silver, and their smaller ingots are some of the highest per oz vintage silver that you will come across.

And for the grand finale, a trifecta of Australian goodness. These are phenomenal examples and extremely rare.

Hard not to lover pieces made by Hoover & Strong. I’ve been a huge fan of these for a long time and happy to own several pieces. A bit of history about the company, they were started in Buffalo, NY in 1912 by Jay Hoover and Harry Strong. Their original market was the recovery of platinum from industrial light bulbs. Harry Strong was only with the company 3 years, but his name stayed on after he left. The company later moved into purchasing platinum and scrap gold jewelry. In the 1930s jewelry manufacturers started moving out of Buffalo and Hoover started a mail order business for their products. During the depression years, the company sold most of its gold to the US Mint. Jay passed away in 1947. Fast forward to 1970, Jay’s grandson, George Hoover took over operations and the company grew. The moved the business to Richmond, VA in 1979. George’s son, Terry Hoover, took over in 1981. They have grown over the years through acquisition and are still in business today.

https://www.hooverandstrong.com/

These pieces are very tough to come by these days and carry huge premiums.

Another more rare variety of the type 2 has “Ozs” versus “Oz.”

Hoover & Strong also made award presentation pieces for a company called RPP. See below for two styles.