Brazil: Joao VI Prince Regent gold Ingot of Sabara 1812, with Guia...

The total number of authentic ingots today is 219 pieces from 9 foundries (Numismatist Claudio Schroeder of Porto Alegre contributed) Here is the breakdown:

Province of Goias.

                Foundry of Goiãs, 30 known 1790 - 1823

                Foundry of São Felix, 1 guia but no ingots 1773

Province of Mato Grosso.

                Foundry of Mato Grosso, 22 known 1784 - 1820 

      Foundry of Cuiaba, 9 known 1821 - 1822

Province of Minas Gerais.

                Foundry of Rio das Mortes, 7 known 1796 - 1818

                Foundry of Sabara, 85 known entre 1778 - 1833

                Foundry of Serro Frio, 21 known 1809 - 1832

                Foundry of Vila Rica, 43 known 1794 - 1818

                Foundry of Ouro Preto (ex-Vila Rica), 1 known 1828

As many as half of the specimens above are in public or private museums. Legendary Portuguese collector and a close friend of Dr. Monteiro, the late Carlos Costa had 36 specimens in his collection that is today part of the Banco Espirito Santo Museum in Lisbon. The Smithsonian in D.C. has a few through Eli Lilly's donation.

Dr. Monteiro was able to obtain five bars in his six decades collecting (the fifth ingot of 1832 will be offered in January 2014 in NY).  I can only think of another private collection that has that many pieces but none with a respective Guia as this lot. Kurt Prober mentions that this bar was first illustrated in the auction catalog of Hans Schulman of New York in June of 1967 with a base price of US$3000.

The Guia reads: "N.79. Deposited in this gold exchange house, Joao Baptista Maciel four ounces of gold from which the fifth for Royal Tax was paid and from the remainder a bar that weighed three ounces, one oitava and twelve grains. The Guia ends with "bar delivered at this Foundry of Sabara on January 7th, 1812." The condition of this Sabara bar's Guia is unheard of. Heritage has been fortunate enough to handle another bar (Serro Frio) with the Guia (lot 20189 of sale #3021 - NYINC 2013) in the same year. The paper of the Serro Frio bar has serious damage issues while this Guia is a VF with great paper quality.

Perhaps the most significant aspect of this bar is its unusually heavy weight of 90+ grams for a Sabara specimen. (Usual range is 30-40 grams). This has allowed for a strong and deep stamping of the 960 Reis c/s (which were also used in Hispanic 8 Reales at the Minas Mint). An amazing numismatic item.
From The RLM Collection, Part II