North Ophir Stock Certificate NV - Argentine district, Virginia City, Storey County - 1864 - Certificate No. 510 for 6 shares at $500 each, issued to O.H. Carpenter datelined Virginia City January 21, 1864. Signed by S. B. Turner, secretary and Edwin C. Rowe, president. Incorporated on March 6th, 1863, and capitalized at $800,000; 1600 shares at $500 per. The North Ophir is listed in Collins' Mercantile Guide and Directory for Virginia City, Gold Hill[x=#8230/]etc. 1864-65 p. 47. It is located directly east of the Sierra Nevada and Union Consolidated, (p. 226 of the Pacific Coast Mining Review, 1878-79). Red overprint on crËme Vignette by Van Vleck; printed by Buswell & Cov, San Francisco. Piece is a bit wrinkled and folded but still in very good condition. The North Ophir mine was immortalized in Mark Twain's recollections of his early days in the Nevada Territory as a classic case of worthless mining stocks that were abundant during the period. [x=#8220/]A most remarkable case of "salting" was that of the "North Ophir." It was claimed that this vein was a remote extension" of the original "Ophir," a valuable mine on the "Comstock." For a few days everybody was talking about the rich developments in the North Ophir. It was said that it yielded perfectly pure silver in small, solid lumps. I went to the place with the owners, and found a shaft six or eight feet deep, in the bottom of which was a badly shattered vein of dull, yellowish, unpromising rock. One would as soon expect to find silver in a grindstone. We got out a pan of the rubbish and washed it in a puddle, and sure enough, among the sediment we found half a dozen black, bullet- looking pellets of unimpeachable "native" silver. Nobody had ever heard of such a thing before; science could not account for such a queer novelty. The stock rose to sixty-five dollars a foot, and at this figure the world-renowned tragedian, McKean Buchanan, bought a commanding interest and prepared to quit the stage once more--he was always doing that. And then it transpired that the mine had been "salted"--and not in any hackneyed way, either, but in a singularly bold, barefaced, and peculiarly original and outrageous fashion. On one of the lumps of "native" silver was discovered the minted legend, "TED STATES OF," and then it was plainly apparent that the mine had been "salted" with melted half-dollars! The lumps thus obtained had been blackened till they resembled native silver and were then mixed with the shattered rock in the bottom of the shaft. It is literally true. Of course, the price of the stock at once fell to nothing, and the tragedian was ruined. But for this calamity we might have lost McKean Buchanan from the stage.[x=#8221/] Roughing It by Mark Twain 1872 p. 311-312. R. H. Stretch, State Mineralogist in 1866, gave the farewell to the mines of Argentine District. He says: [x=#8220/]They lie chiefly in the granite, the gangue being a glassy quartz, in some instances carrying iron pyrites, and stained black with other compounds of iron, assaying small quantities of gold. The mines are not likely to prove of much value.[x=#8221/] Virginia City Nevada 1864