PMTARCO was a California outfit pouring bars in the 1970s — dealers expand the name as Precious Metals Testing and Refining Company, though that’s never been fully confirmed. Their bars are crude little hand pours, usually .999 fine with a simple PMTARCO stamp and a blank reverse, most in the 2 to 2.5 oz range (a 100 oz monster exists too). Production ended long ago and they’re genuinely hard to find now.

Here is another slightly different variety that Jon M. was nice enough to share with the community here.

Although, PPM is considered common vintage on their second gen 5 and 10 oz pieces, the 1 oz pieces are no longer that common. As silver smalls has exploded in the collectible community, poured 1 oz pieces are heavily sought after. PPM had two versions of the 1 oz pours, a type 1 and 2. The type 1 is much more common, but the type 2 is a trapezoidal shape that appears larger at first glance, but weight is also 1 oz. These are rare an in my estimation, you will find 8-10 regular pours before seeing a trapezoid PPM.

It took me years to accumulate this many examples.

I’m finally getting around to writing about my favorite genre of vintage silver bars, which are what I refer to as “Silver Smalls.” My definition may differ from others, but I consider anything 100 gram and smaller as a “Small.” I can’t wait to share some of the many 1-3+ troy oz pieces in my collections, but wanted to kick it off with one of my very favorites and among the most rare pieces in my collection. Perth made these pieces circa late 70s-early 80s era from what I gather. They came in serialized and non serialized. There are theories that the non serial variety were a test run, because they are far less often found than serialized. I have 30 pieces and of the 30, 4 are non serial. That pretty much sums it up. Both carry ridiculous premiums, but if you can put together sequential sets, it goes to even a higher level. I have 5 different sequential sets pictured below. Enjoy.

Note the estimated mintage of the serialized variety is <500 and estimated non serial <500. I personally believe the non serial is far lower, but regardless, many of these 1 oz Perths have disappeared for good. Aside of my collections, I’m aware of cumulatively maybe a few dozen at most from my knowledge of various collectors in the community who have shared pictures of their Perth 1 oz ingots. Hope you enjoyed this post. If you are a collector of these, please do follow the blog and or drop a note/email. Would love to hear from you.

Rounding out the P box, I’m going to share some pieces that you don’t often see. I few of the following are outstanding, but not well known hallmarks. I’m going to start with my favorite, which is from the great state of Florida. Precious Metals Inc. out of Ft. Lauderdale is one you very rarely see. This is a beautifully made bar with a great hallmark in center with weight and serial on opposite sides of the bar. Extremely unique look.

Next up is a mold that will look very familiar to you. It’s a spitting image of the popular West Coast Refining 10 oz ingots. Precious Metals & Refining 10 oz class odd weight. My theory is West Coast Refining likely made these for them in very limited quantity, because you never see these. I have only seen one other than the one pictured.

Next up is a PERCO 10 oz class. I’ve seen a few of these in different varieties over the years. Known for the superb pour lines. Check this out.

Next is a cool old pour 5 oz from P.C., which I know nothing about, but really dig the old style. Serial #22.

Here’s a very cool 10 oz class PMP with a serial/lot number of 913 on obverse. This comes from Brian R’s collection. I really dig these, especially the ingot shape with the PMP stamp on side of the image of the bar/hallmark. Thanks for sharing, Brian.

Last up is another from Brian R’s collection. Not a lot known a bout PAR R, but a nice looking bar for sure.

Nice looking old pour.

I’m a big fan of these ingots, which were 70’s era. Most don’t know that PMTARCO stands for Precious Metals Testing and Refining Company out of Anaheim, CA. They came in many sizes and varieties. Iv’e seen probably 5-6 different variations of these. I have several 2 oz pieces that I’ll post in my upcoming smalls blog posts.

Here’s another variety shared by Brian R. Beautiful bar!

Not to be confused with Phoenix Precious Metals, Phoenix Refining Corporation was actually a New York refiner. Their iconic hallmark is a rocket going through the O. Most ingots found today are type 2, as pictured below — these show up in 1 oz commercial art bars all the way up to 5, 10, and 25 oz+ pours. The type 1 is exceptionally rare: only the rocket hallmark on the obverse with no name stamped, and just a handful have been discovered in the 5 and 10 oz class. Long out of production, they trade only on the secondary market now.

Placer Sierra out of Rocklin, CA, was another one of many California refiners back in the late 70s as a gold and silver reclamation company. They were in operation from 1979 to 1985 with their refining done in Orangevale, CA. Their ingots have been found in sizes ranging from 1 oz to 100 oz. They used to be commonly found in 10 oz, but with the growth in new collectors coming into the market, you don’t see these often.

Here is a rarely seen 1 oz class example shared by Jon M. Love this piece!

PPM out of Arizona has become one of the more popular and commonly collected vintage pieces. They came in 1, 5 and 10 oz mainly, although a few larger bars have come up from time to time. These used to be so easy to find, but with the growth of the collector market, people are starting to accumulate and hold so you don’t see as many come up as several years back. There are also different variety and stamping patterns for many ppm bars. I’ll be showcasing the smaller bars in some upcoming posts on silver smalls. Here are my PPM bars.

Can’t think of a more fitting ingot to kick off the “P” box than Perth old pours.

The Perth Mint’s story starts in 1899, when it opened as a branch of Britain’s Royal Mint — the last of three Australian branches after Sydney and Melbourne. It was built to handle the flood of gold coming out of the Coolgardie and Kalgoorlie rushes, refining it and striking gold sovereigns for the British Empire, a job it kept until 1931. The Mint stayed under British control until 1970, when ownership passed to the government of Western Australia, which still owns it today. Remarkably, it still operates from its original Hay Street premises in East Perth, and its refinery has grown into one of the largest LBMA-accredited gold refineries in the world.

But the pieces collectors chase come from a much narrower window. From the late 1970s through the mid-1980s, the Perth Mint was still a boutique-scale bullion producer, hand-pouring silver ingots in sizes from 1 oz all the way up to 200 oz — 1, 5, 10, 20 oz, kilo, 50, 100, and 200. Collectors estimate total production across all of the early pours at roughly 45,000 pieces. Most were serial numbered on the reverse, every stamp applied by hand, and the serials are often erratic — no two bars exactly alike.

The classic hallmark carries the Mint’s swan logo under a “CYGNIS INSIGNIS” banner — Latin for “distinguished for swans,” a motto that first appeared on a 1929 Western Australia centenary medallion — along with THE PERTH MINT, WESTERN AUSTRALIA, the weight, 999 fine, and the serial number.

Here’s the part that explains why you almost never see them: for years, the Perth Mint itself was buying these old ingots back from the public and melting them down to encourage sales of new product. The mint destroyed its own vintage pours. That, as much as anything, is why survivors are so scarce — and why the 10 oz size has developed its own collector following, with the recognized Type A, B, C, and D varieties.

These bars truly are among my very favorite of any old pours out there. There is a certain quality in the way they were made and a certain beauty that they achieve with age. Below are pieces from my collection. I’ll be doing more with Perth in the future with a focus on their smaller highly rare and collectible 1 oz ingots — the serialized ones are estimated at fewer than 500 pieces, and a serial-numbered example brought $1,705 at auction in early 2024.

There is a good resource to learn about some of the various pieces and varieties at allengelhard.com.

I have been wanting to do this write up and share of images for quite sometime. Hope you enjoyed it.