Chautauqua Silver Works

We wanted to take an opportunity to update our blog for Chautauqua Silver Works. Which is located in Western New York, where it was founded by Ron Kinney. Many of his early designs are already sold out. His current designs can be purchased directly from him through email at dlanor50@hotmail.com. Unfortunately he is only selling within the USA, but for all the Canadian and U.K. Customers please reach out to us and we will try to arrange something.

Ron is a very prolific coin designer making over 10 unique designs since 2013. This is truly a work of passion for him and it shows. In English, Chautauqua means adult education though art, literature and lectures. His designs are certainly true to that name. They are all beautiful designs and extremely thought-provoking images. They incorporate many intricate and detailed elements, perfectly balanced without appearing busy or cluttered. The following photos are from the long sold out and highly sought after Toxic Series.

Ron is a wealth of information and has been extremely generous with his time and answering some questions for us. We reached out to him and he provided us with information regarding his path that led him into the world of designing thoughtful silver bullion,

“I'm retired and kind of fell into doing this. I started hanging out at my local coin shop (now closed) and they had put out their first round Lady Liberty 2013. They were working on their second, which was The Reaper "What's in Your Pocket", which was very popular. They were looking for a new idea for their third round and I came up with Uncle Vam "Banking on Your Blood", which was very popular also. After that I came up with Stax the Silver Bull for them.

The coin shop closed and one of the owners told me to start making my own rounds, so that's when I started Chautauqua Silver Works. In my first series I limited them to 200 Proof Like and have put out three so far in the Toxic Series, Tree of Toxicity, The Psycho Path and Last Nail in the Coffin. I have only released the first two of four in the Ounce of Prevention Series, Security and Curative [he is unsure if the last two will be minted at this time]. The T.I.M.E. Series has five designs, all available for sale.”

The T.I.M.E. Series is very popular. We will be reselling this rounds in the near future. We have placed our initial order and expecting stock within the month. The series has a maximum mintage of 10,000, except for T.I.M.E. - E.M.I.T. which is limited to 5,000. The rounds each contain images representative of time. The first four are titled; Shifting Gears, A Grain of Sand, Perpetual and Portals of Existence. The last round in the series which features a double obverse really closes the series well with the title T.I.M.E. - E.M.I.T.; The Increment Measuring Existence - Existence Measured In Theory. The rounds are beautiful, artful and very metaphorical, we will let the images speak for themselves as they really do allow for personal interpretation.

The next series Ron designed was the Ounce of Prevention Series. It was originally planned for 4 designs but has seen been limited to two designs. The two designs work perfectly as a set. The first round - Security; bears the words "An Ounce of prevention... Is worth a mound of Fiat. The second round - Curative; bears the words "An Ounce of prevention... Is worth a groundbreaking cure."

The series is a play on the traditional Benjamin Franklin quote "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure". Even the puzzle design is meant to pay homage to Franklin's love for creating puzzles. The inside of the design shows interlocking puzzle pieces in a satin finish.

Security makes direct reference to the many of the overarching reason why we stack and collect silver. Curative makes reference to silvers many amazing and overlooked medical properties. As nurses we feel connected to this important use of silver.

We were very drawn to this series, and reached out to Ron for the opportunity to sell these rounds as our first Semi-numismatic offering on our site besides our own release. They can be purchased here, and we are honoured to currently be the exclusive sellers of this series.

Ron is continuing his passion for thought provoking designs with his current series the Cryptic Silver Series. 9 designs are planned for the Cryptic Silver Series each with a limited edition of 200 Proof Like. Ron wanted to do something different with skeletons, hoping to make everyone wonder, ponder and interpret the round in their own way. The first four rounds in this series have already been released and being sold directly by Ron himself.

The first round in the Cryptic Quote round and the second in the Cryptic Passage round. Once again the designs speak for themselves.

The 3rd and 4th round are title Cryptic Conflict and Cryptic History.

The 5th and 6th Rounds are title Cryptic Facade and Cryptic Forces

The seventh and eight releases are Cryptic Vision and Cryptic Fire.

Ron and Chautauqua Silver Works have been one of the first in the recent wave of private mints and one of the leading forces in their popularity. We owe much respect to Ron for paving the way for us as we also pursue our dream. We are honoured to have to the opportunity to write this blog and be developing a friendship with Ron. His rounds are a must-have for any semi-numismatic and privately minted silver bullion collector. Please reach out to him at dlanor50@hotmail.com to place an order.

P.S. if anyone has "The Last Nail in Coffin" or the "Tree of Toxicity" round for sale, please let us know those are the last round we need to complete our Chautaqua Silver Works collection.

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