Vintage Prairie Schooner Silver Art Bar

Prairie schooner, 19th-century covered wagon popularly used by emigrants traveling to the American West. In particular, it was the vehicle of choice on the Oregon Trail. The name prairie schooner was derived from the wagon’s white canvas cover, or bonnet, which gave it the appearance, from a distance, of the sailing ship known as a schooner.^Britannica

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Vintage Art Bars are the spice of my silver stack. For this article, I'd like to show you my

1973 Prairie Schooner Covered Wagon Silver Art Bar

^{Use the slider to see front & back photos by @silversaver888}

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This beautiful toning 1 troy ounce silver art bar was made by the Patrick Mint of .999 fine silver. I have several art bars from the Patrick Mint and each one is nicely struck.

The silver art bars pictured above and below are called "pressed silver bars."

Pressed Silver Bars Mints that make pressed silver bars take a completely different approach to making their bars. Instead of starting out with molten silver, they start with what is known as “blanks.” A blank is a piece of metal that is the shape of a bar or coin, but it is smooth and has no design (picture a quarter that has been worn down completely so there is no design and is smooth and shiny). The blanks are then loaded into a machine that applies thousands of pounds of pressure with a die containing the design. The blank is stamped and the die design is pressed onto the blank resulting in a finished round or bar. These pressed bars often times have more intricate designs and a high-gloss finish. ^source

I enjoy collecting silver art bars, both pressed and hand poured bars. Here again are four pressed silver art bars featured in my previous recent posts:^{CLICK the photos by @silversaver888 to see article}

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I very much enjoyed sharing with you a bit of my passion for silver stacking in this post. Thank you for reading this article, and I hope to see you again soon! Until then, have a terrific steemit day! Aloha from Hawai'i!