Rare Old Vintage Loaf K & F S Shonbak Pyramid shaped Hand Pour .999 Silver Bar

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Rare Old Vintage Loaf K & F S Shonbak Pyramid shaped Hand Pour .999 Silver Bar:
$668.00

* K.F. & S. Shonback - Old Pour .999 Fine Silver Bar

* For This sale: Vintage Collector\'s Pyramid Shaped Silver Bar

* Description:

Great looking bar! Old pour. Awesome natural toning. This one is a real \'looker\'. This bar weighs 14.6 Troy Ounces (or 1 regular pound). Please see the last pic for a conversion chart. Great size. These are very rare and unusual. Rarely come into the secondary market as most investor\'s and collector\'s are hoarding the few remaining bars that are out there. Own a rare piece of history!

Here is some additional information on K & F S Silver bars for your enjoyment:

“K. & F. S”

(Kenneth & Freda Shonback, 2737 Clement Street, San Francisco, CA 94122)

What were found are summarized as follows :

(1). The ingots were made between 1966-1968. No earlier than 1966. No later than 1968.

(2). “K. & F. S”, or Kenneth Shonback and Freda Shonback, were couples living at 2737 Clement Street of San Francisco. Both did misdemeanor jobs before 1966 – NOT the glorious “Smelter & Refiner” as you may think.

(3). In 1966, the jack-of-all-trades Shonbacks finally hit a brilliant idea – WINK WINK!!! Making pyramid shaped silver ingots of various size and put into wooded box for people to buy as gifts to employees. It was an instant hit !!! National magazines touted these as great investments. Remember – they did it way before Foster got the same idea in 1968!!!

(4). After 1968, Shonback appeared have totally quit the ingot making business. What happened ? Your guess is as good as mine, and my guess is Foster kills their business (Foster silver ingots came out in 1968 – great investment, great gift as well, and massively prduced)

[Web Research]

The following links to a 1967 archive that describes Kenneth Shonback pioneered this gift idea with pyramid shaped silver ingots. (search keyword ‘Shonback’ in this article, you will find relevant information). Here we get our first piece solved : the ‘K’ in “K. & F. S” stands for “Kenneth”. Also, we know the ingots were popular bought as gifts to give to employees.

The following links to 1966 Shonback ads of selling such ingots on Popular Mechanics magazine. It specifies purchase address as Shonback, P.O.Box 22168, San Francisco, CA 94122.

this link

Click this link :

You will find ALL the Shonback silver ingot ads in the magazines and books – Popular Mechanics, The Lapidary Journal, Science Digest, Esquire, Harper\'s Bazaar, The Numismatist – only appeared after 1966 and before 1968 (included). None of the silver ingot ads appeared before 1966 and none appeared after 1968. There are Shonback ads earlier than 1966 but those have nothing to do with ingots.

The following links to 1962 archive San Francisco address book, that specifies Kenneth Shonback and Freda Shonback lived together at 2737 Clement Street of San Francisco. Hence another piece is solved : the ‘F’ in “K. & F. S” stands for “Freda”. Freda Shonback was listed as ‘drsmkr’ (i.e. dressmaker).

The following links to 1961 Shonback copyrighted his book “How to profit from low-cost land” in the Copyright Office, The Library of Congress, Washington DC.

this link

The following links to 1961 Shonback ads of available government lands information on Popular Mechanics. It specifies his address as 2737 Clement Street, San Francisco, California.

this link

The following links to 1957 Shonback ads to buy old gold (broken gold Jewelry or whatnot) on Popular Mechanics. It specifies his address as 2737 Clement Street, San Francisco, California.

this link

The following links to 1954 Shonback ads of Hobby-books on Popular Mechanics. It specifies his address as 2737 Clement Street, San Francisco, California.

this link

The following links to 1954 Shonback ads of Hobby-books on Popular Science. It specifies his address as 2737 Clement Street, San Francisco, California.

this link

However, in 1969 Shonback appeared have quit the ingot making business. The following links to 1969 San Francisco Yellow Page archive that Shonback of 2737 Clement Street was listed under “Bookkeeping Service”.

The following links to archive Social Security Death Master File. It specifies Social Security number 546-40-6824 was issued to KURT SCHONBEK (I think it is his native name. Shonbacks were naturalized citizens.), who was born 03 July 1908 and, Death Master File says, died 12 November 1997.

Social Security number 546-40-6825 was issued to FREDA SHONBACK, who was born 06 May 1903 and, Death Master File says, died April 1974.

Frankly, I quite doubt anyone’s silver ingot gift business can last that long - more than a decade - without being killed by copycats. Even lasting 2 years (between 1966 and 1968) would be lucky for Shonbacks.

Here is the link to great bamfanforsure’s old listing, that incorrectly says :

“WHILE RESEARCHING THIS AWESOME BAR, WE FIRST DISCOVERED IT\'S TRUE IDENTITY...K. & F. SHONBACK. A SILVER SMELTER FROM SAN FRANCISCO...DATING AS FAR BACK AS 1953!!! MOST OF THE RESULTS, THAT GIVES HISTORICAL INFORMATION, APPEAR TO BE AD\'S PLACED IN MAGAZINES...IE, POPULAR MECHANICS, SCIENCE DIGEST, ESQUIRE, ETC. WHEN VIEWING (GOOGLE BOOKS), I FOUND AD\'S FOR THE BARS IN THE CLASSIFIED\'S!!! ALL WERE DATED BEGINNING IN MARCH 1953 THROUGH 1968. NOTHING MORE BEYOND 1968!!! BASED ON ALL OTHER INFORMATION...THESE RARE BARS ARE CONSIDERED TO BE FROM THE 1950\'s!”

this link

As I said before, I only found Shonback silver ingot ads in magazines only between 1966 and 1968. All the shonback earlier ads were lousy cheap rip-off jobs. Before 1966, the guy was a loser. He did hit a brilliant idea in 1966 and the fortune last 2 years.

By the way, in 1972 Shonback still lived at his old house 2737 Clement Street :

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