I started the Shields Mint in 1980, I think in March. At first we had a die set that
had an ejector pin that left a round imprint in the center of the
reverse. This with Capital G&A on the obverse. It was made for a fellow named Fred Isaacs who I really enjoyed working with. I don't think any
other obverse had the ejector pin imprint. I could be wrong about
that. So
a bar with the imprint of the ejector pin is very rare. Later, we had a
die set made that did away with the ejector pin imprint as the whole
reverse plate moved up and down. I also made a bar for a fellow named Peter Covert with Minix on
the obverse and a couple hundred for a golf tournament in Hilton Head
called a "Silver Shootout" but I forget the name of the golfer who
contracted for that although I think his first name was Mike. We only made a few hundred at most like that. I think that a total of the Shields
Mint (with my Irish and English family coats of arms on the obverse)
were around 250,000 over a three year period. I offered some artists a
prize for the best design and chose the final design from about six
entries. I closed the Mint on December 9, 1982. The market had gone
flat, people lost interest in silver and gold and I didn't have any
sales.
