Back in the late 80's, my mother got me hooked on silver stacking.

She had inherited some money and 175 acres of land and wanted to invest some of her newly acquired money.

She invested in some stocks and boring stuff but the coolest thing she invested in was a 100 oz ingot of ENGLEHARD
silver.

I read a statement from a @steemsilvergold member recently that said something to the effect of "if you are a real silver stacker you have some Englehard in your collection. I don't remember who said and this is paraphrased but if you are the one that said it within this last week please let me know and I will give you the credit. UPDATE @thedamus just informed me the @silverd510 was/is the kind steemian that left a comment about Englehard. Thanks @thedamus and thank you @silver510 for the comment.

I did a little research and this is what I quickly found regarding Englehard:

The company Engelhard dates back to 1902 and was founded by Charles W Engelhard, Sr. Primarily in the platinum smelting business, Engelhard went on to be a large producer of catalytic converters used in cars. The Engelhard silver bars have long been a favorite among Silver bugs, collectors and investors.

My Mom paid just over $700 + change USD for the ingot. I remember seeing it on a few occasions as a kid and reveling in its weight. We're talking 6.25 POUNDS (2.83495 Kilo).

It wasn't all that shiny but it was a BRUTE. If a mythical creature....say a Giant was a silver stacker this is the kind of silver he would stack. I don't think a dragon would. Some of you will know the habits of dragons better than me but my guess is that dragons find coins easier on the scales and the eyes. Dragons may very well prefer gold.

After my dear mother bought the 100 ounces I began purchasing silver and asking for silver as gifts on birthdays, Christmas and other Holidays.

I was paying around $7.00 an ounce then and enjoyed the different designs in each of my coins.

Pick an animal, even an unattractive animal and put it on a silver coin and isn't it a beautiful sight?
1-ounce bars and coins were all I could afford but I acquired a number of designs of few of which were Englehard Bars.

I was still in High School and while fun I didn't view silver as much of an investment. Sure there was talk about it jumping up past gold one day but when you are still a kid nothing too far in the future seems real.

I was more concerned about dating and driving my 1974 Plymouth Duster around (if both could be done at the same time that much better).

My goal was to get more silver saved up than my mom even if I had to do it 1 ounce at a time. That was a goal but if you go back and read the car sentence above you will see I was not that dedicated. I was still in High School

Time passed and I went to college. There were lots of shiny and beautiful things around, not necessarily silver.

I had amassed around 60 ounces and was tempted by a first in life.

Money was tight then. I was in the National Guard and getting paid well but that was only 2 or 3 days out of the month. Most of my money went toward food and gas for the car.

When the shiny man thing came along, well my silver was just sitting around not doing much. It hurt me to sell my silver but it was a way to get something that at the time was an important rite of passage.

If I had been in a bit more of a hurry I could have saved some time and just blurted out the whole point to this post instead of walking down memory lane.

I went to My Mother's house tonight to have dinner. After a delicious meal, we played some cards. My stepfather was there, he is in his mid-70s but he is one strong, independent and still very handsome man.

We had done the whole father's day open the cards up and all that and I said to my mom "Hey before we go, would you like to look at some silver?"

Sure she said and rushed off to the bedroom to get her stash out of the safe. I showed her some of my collection and she ooed and awed, not because she is into silver but she is my mom so I occasionally get a "wow" out of her. I showed her the 5 ounces that @saffisara had mailed to me as a surprise from across the ocean and told her the story.

My Mom had some coins from Deadwood, South Dakota, near where I grew up and some Mount Rushmore silver coins also near where I grew up. There was even a very special one from the "Homestake Gold Mine" where my step-father worked for many years. He was given the silver when he retired. There was a 1-ounce coin from the STURGIS motorcycle rally which was 20 minutes from the house where I grew up and an event that happened every year.

Then she went into the other room and returned with something heavy, wrapped in a towel.

It was 100-ounce Englehard ingot from my childhood. There it was, still as glorious as ever.

6.25 pounds of feathers does not feel that heavy. 6.25 pounds of silver feels heavy.

I noticed the ingot was slightly angled toward the bottom (some of you can relate) for help in getting the ingot out of the mold originally.

This is not something one sees every day, YES I did touch it and it felt sooooo good. I wanted to have some alone time with it but my mom would not allow it.

I thought some of you in the @alliance and especially some of the @steemsilvergold-community might be interested in taking a gander.

Thanks for hanging out and reading this walkthrough yesteryear with me. I enjoy each and every one of you that stops by. I especially enjoy getting to know you all and reading the NICE comments that are left here.

Each comment is like opening up a little surprise package up for me when I read it.

Take care. Much love!

PS...I told one fellow Steemian to get ready for a "Big O" when they saw the size of this ingot. If anyone in the silver stacking community has that reaction please say so in the comments below.

The following are in no specific order:
@enginewitty (Legend Steemit Witness and other fancy titles)
@dreemsteem
@prettynicevideo
@saffisara
@thedamas
@thesilverdoll
@kerrislravenhill
@eveningart
@vangie
@silverstacker
@silveringots
@silver510