Company Name: Bache
Company Location: NY, NY
Company Information: A securities firm originally founded in 1879 who got involved with the Hunt Brothers during the big silver bubble in 1980.
An online story from here: “Bache and Company were looking for a White Knight in 1979 to fend off a takeover attempt by the Belzberg family, and ended up in business with Bunker and Herbert Hunt. As we all know, the Hunts attempted to corner the silver market, which they ran up to more than $50 an ounce, from less than $10. Unfortunately Bache extended a quarter of a billion dollars of margin to the Hunts without establishing whether they could produce the cash if need be.
On Jan. 20, 1980, the Commodity Exchange torpedoed the Hunts by forbidding new orders in silver futures except to liquidate existing positions. On Thursday, March 27th 1980 (Silver Thursday) Bache issued a $100 million margin call to the Hunts, which they could not meet. As the price of silver slid to $11, Bache had to dump some of their silver, depressing prices further. Outside speculators began dumping too. In fact a general panic in the commodities and futures markets ensued.
A consortium of US banks provided a $1.1 billion line of credit to the brothers which allowed them to pay Bache which, in turn, survived the ordeal. However, the beleaguered Hunts sold their Bache stock to the Belzbergs, whose holdings thus reached 14 percent.
In desperation, Bache sold out to Prudential (do you remember Prudential-Bache, don't you?), consoling the Belzbergs with a $40 million profit.”
All these bars share the same mold: Allen's Coin Shop, Bache, Columbus, JPM and Xenia.
Known sizes:
- 1 oz pressed
- 5 oz portrait
- 10 oz with “SILVER”
- 10 oz with “FINE”
- 50 oz
- 100 oz
Gallery:
| Obverse | Reverse | Additional | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 oz pressed | |||
| 5 oz | |||
 |  |  | 10 oz “SILVER” |
| 10 oz “FINE” | |||
| 50 oz | |||
| 100 oz | |||
| 100 oz JM bar with Bache counterstamp |