Executive Summary History

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.