Joel Orosz writes:

Alan V. Weinberg writes: "Wow! I've just last nightreturned from the final two catalogued and scheduledJohn J Ford, Jr. Stack's auctions in New York in thepenthouse of the Le Parker-Meridien Hotel across 57thStreet from Stack's offices.

"These sales have continued since October 2003. It seemslike just yesterday that an enthusiastic Larry Stack calledme and others to announce the coup. Ford had personallytold me many times that his collection would not come upfor auction for 20 years after he died. So much for theplans of mice and men.

"These two final sales were a fitting close to thishistoric four-year offering. The audience in the penthouse,with a full view of Central Park and the New York skyline,was enthusiastic and largely filled. For the first time,everyone had a table top. Some of the active attendeesand bidders were Bill Anton, Tony Terranova, RussellAugustin, Don Kagin, Fred Holabird, John Kraljevich, RonKarp, John Dannreuther, Martin Paul, Scott Rubin andprivate collectors unknown to me. And of course mastercataloguer Mike Hodder, one of the two men singularlyresponsible for the Ford sales being so successful andhistoric - the other being Larry Stack.

"The phone bank was very active with many phone biddersbeing quite successful in their pursuits. A phone biddermay be at some distance or may be nearby in his hotel room,not wishing his prospective competitors to know who'sbidding. Additionally, Larry Stack and Bruce Hagen handleda dozen or more selected clients' "floor bids" and cellphone bids which were bid aggressively and successfully.

"There was some pre-sale speculation about part XXI (theIngot sale) not being successful due to the controversialnature of many ingots and their Paul Franklin provenance.So it was something of a surprise to watch this vigorouslycontested auction succeed with every lot selling for recordprices. A dated Wiegand $20 gold ingot for $87,500 hammerto Don Kagin, a unique Meyers gold $18 ingot for $75K hammerto bidder 890 underbid by Tony Terranova, and so manyothers in the $20K- $30K range.

"I know little of obsolete paper currency but there werecertainly more than a few knowledgeable bidders for thisgroup with the California Salt Lake Mail Line $50 at $32,500hammer to agent Bruce Hagan bidding for phone bidder 174, aUtah Territory currency copper plate hammering for $24K tophone bidder 429 and an interesting Brother Jonathan Steamshipcabin ticket for $3,500 hammer to Fred Holabird underbid byJohn Kraljevich. Bill Anton, Kagin-Holabird, Ron Karp andTony Terranova dominated the obsolete currency and paperephemera among physically present floor bidders but thephone bidders were hugely successful too.

"The tokens, medals and Pioneer gold patterns really openedone's eyes. Standing out as undoubtedly the most unusualand aesthetically-pleasing item in the entire Ford collectionwas the gold nugget -encrusted hand-constructed 1850 SanFrancisco gold Alderman's medal which sold for a total$316,250 to Tony Terranova for a client, Larry Stack forhimself, the underbidder. (JJF's favorite two medals werehis silver John Jacob Astor Indian Peace Medal and thisAlderman's medal )

This was the third highest auction price ever realizedfor an American medal, surpassed only by the Stack's-soldgold Zachary Taylor Congressional gold medal at $460Ktotal two years ago and the Saint-Gaudens 1889 CentennialGeorge Washington Inauguration medal in gold at $391K.The three 1850's Committee of Vigilance silver medals allsold to Don Kagin for $31,625 and $25,300 for the lasttwo medals. It was only a few years ago that Kagin soldone for $7,500 to a California dealer!

"But there were some literally laughable auction resultstoo - in a 'what were they thinking?' fashion : a set ofthree 1969-struck Empire City Mine fantasy tokens for $1,300hammer, a set of three J.J. Conway restrike denominations,struck in 1956 and quite common on eBay, for (gasp!) $4,000hammer. And to cap this off, how about two Unc specimensof the extremely common 1849 Liberty Head / kneeling minerbrass game counters (I've seen 500 if I've seen 1) for $650and $750 hammer to Kagin and Karp. What were the biddersthinking?

"Mid-way, Stack's set up a sumptuous Greek food buffet,thoughtful since the auction commenced at 5 PM and wouldgo on into the late night. Could the influence of ChristineKarstadt and American Numismatic Rarities have somethingto do with this? Yup.

"At the conclusion of the two Ford sales parts XX and XXI,Larry Stack and Mike Hodder bear-hugged each other in theauction room, clearly overjoyed that all their blood,sweat and tears resulted in magnificent results. It wasmore than just a higher gross. It was a vindication ofthe cataloguing effort, the sales and publicity effort,and a fitting final salute to a man they both knew verywell - John Ford. Ford would have been proud.

[I understand that four members of the Ford family attendedthe sale. So it seems the market has spoken - the assayingots, several of which had been in question, sold forrecord amounts. Skeptics may well note that it only takestwo fools to create a record price, but that can be saidof any auction. The high prices paid for relatively commonpieces described by Alan could be cited as evidence of thepresence of fools among the bidders, yet this phenomenonis not uncommon in big-name collection sales, where biddershave been known to overpay as a premium for the name.

Since the beginning of The Great Debate over assay bars it'sbeen clear that the controversy has long legs. The questionsinitially raised many years ago will continue to be debatedinto the future; this sale is only the latest episode in along saga. It will be interesting to see how events unfoldfrom here.

I look forward to purchasing the remaining hardboundversions of the Ford sale catalogs to complete my set.Despite the controversies and mysteriously missing itemsthe sales remain a landmark record of a legendarynever-to-be-seen again collection. They are a core holdingof an American numismatic library and I expect the set willremain in high demand for generations. Congratulations toMike Hodder and Stack's for a job well done. -Editor]

To read the complete original E-Sylum article, see:ALAN WEINBERG ON THE STACK'S JOHN J. FORD XX AND XXI SALES(coinbooks.org/esylum_v10n42a05.html)