Up for auction is an Anaconda Mining Co. 192g Copper Stamped Batch Test Ingot Antique shaped like a bowl or crucible.  It is about 3.75 inches across at the widest point, and just over an inch deep.

My understanding is that these were produced by stamping an ingot between two dies to test the properties of the batch of copper, as a quality control measure.  Some were stamped with the Anaconda hallmark and sold as collectibles.

Marcus Daly bought the original silver mine, named the Anaconda, in 1880. Daly partnered with George Hearst, James Ben Ali Haggin and Lloyd Tevis in 1881 to develop it, and the company expanded dramatically in 1882 with the discovery of huge copper deposits. In 1883, Daly began building a smelter and the town of Anaconda to process copper mined in Butte. In 1899, with Hearst and Tevis deceased, Haggin retired and Daly restructured the enterprise into the Amalgamated Copper Company, bringing in H H Rogers and William Rockefeller.

 

Anaconda later became one of the largest mining companies in the world for much of the 20th Century.

 

@oldpouralchemy

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