posted 10-02-2004 01:58 PM            

Some questions that bewilder me about coin silver, of which I know next to nothing, include:

Why the interest in Southern Coin Silver as opposed to Coin Silver in General?

What is the qualifier for Coin Silver? Maker Location or Provenance of Owner? OR must it have both?

I have pieces of coin flatware, monogrammed and the maker mark is E.C. Barlow. Would anyone know if this is the mark of a Southern Coin Silversmith?

Provenance: Belonged to William Simpson Oldham, a Texas Senator during the Civil War, in honor of whom Oldham County, Texas is named. There is also a book about the Senator's adventures during the Civil War.

So if the makerof these pieces is not Southern, would this still be considered Southern coin because of the provenance?

posted 10-02-2004 07:36 PM            

Southern silver tends to commsnd higher prices than equivalent contemporary Northern silver because of its comparitive rarity, due to the fact that the rural South was less populous than the urban North, as well as the fact that much earlier Southern silver was destroyed or looted during the Civil War, and then the economy was in ruins after it.

Edward Callistus Barlow began work in Georgetown, Kentucky in 1850. He fought with the Union Army in the Civil War, after which he operated a jewelry shop. Much of the silver and jewelry he sold is believed to have been purchased in the East for resale, as he made repeated trips there to buy stock for his shop. He advertised as a manufacturing jeweler as late as 1894. A lengthy biography is to be found in Boultinghouse's Silversmiths of Kentucky.

posted 10-02-2004 10:52 PM            

Great answers that reveal my true ignorance. So if I follow the premise that rarity makes the difference between Southern and other silver, then those silversmiths whose works were distributed primarily in the South would be most coveted, I suppose. Again, following that line of thought,since Barlow's pieces were distributed in the East - might it be considered commonly available, not even hard to find and certainly not rare?

In the event Barlow's work is not hard to find, does proof of Southern provenance restore some any merit? I suppose I'm basically back to subject line regarding Southern provenance vs maker.