Farran Zerbe's unceremonious removal from the ANA's highest award and its recent renaming both had a basis in Mr. David Alexander's CoinWeek article . Below are excerpts:

By all accounts, Mr. Zerbe was a smart and motivated man. As such, this was undoubtedly an exercise of the imagination, rather than a serious proposal. Referring to the article appearing in The Pittsburg Press on March 11, 1903, the context of his proposal is quickly understood:

It seems the coin was never made, but it certainly wasn't to be made of gold. As an 'imaginary' coin and marketing tool, the U.S.Mint would not have had a comment.

Here's another excerpt:

Dr. Heath held an ANA office in most years before his death, including President in several. This statement makes the combination of Mr. Zerbe's ANA presidency and ownership of The Numismatist seem dangerous and without precedent - That was not the case.

Regarding the 1909 ANA elections:

The ANA membership list was mailed yearly to all members, beginning in October of 1908. The addresses of new members were printed in each edition of The Numismatist.

Here's another:

As mentioned, the mailing list was sent to all members. The Numismatist policy was to only print and The little political material appearing in The Numismatist rightly called out as No material was published that 'ruthlessly advance[d] Henderson's candidacy,' or Only one letter advocating Dr. Henderson was printed as a paid advertisement. It's impossible to prove if any was ever sent as advertising to The Numismatist, let alone if its publication was not allowed. Given the adversarial relationships, it highly probably no letters from the Higgins campaign were ever sent. Rather, it seemed Mr. Higgins preferred Mehl's Numismatic Monthly for the publishing of his campaign statements.

And another:

Mr. Alexander miss-represents Mr. Brand's resignation. As stated in Mr. Q. David Bowers' book, The ANA Centennial History; The use of character assassination and mud slinging by the Higgins campaign was more likely responsible for Mr. Brand's resignation. Those tactics were widely unpopular and likely a cause of Mr. Higgins' defeat. He also fails to mention opposition to the Higgins campaign tactics from within the NYNC itself, including from Mr. Jules de Lagerberg and the resignation in protest of Mr. Niklewicz.

And another:

By stating it was Mr. Alexander infers that the scroll's authorship was anonymous and it therefore lacks some validity and resolve. However, Mr. Zerbe's name appears in the by-line, 9 The double height, doubled sided, double folded is a well written, pure defense and rebuttal to the character assassination mounted by Mr. Elder and Mr. Higgins during the campaign. Contrary to Mr. Alexander's statement, its inclusion in the August issue meant it would not be seen by members prior mailing their ballot or proxy, since the convention began on August 9th. As Mr. Zerbe stated in the first and then last paragraphs:

And then there's the infamous 'blank proxies' allegation:

There is no such statement in Mr. Bowers' book. This patently falsified claim has been since repeated a number of times, including most recently in a YouTube video history of Mr. Zerbe where the number has increased to '400 blank proxies.' This accusation appears to originate from Mr. Higgins' political booklet that predated the convention; Mr. Zerbe decries this accusation in his editorial of August, 3rd. It has since grown by exaggeration and gained an infamous life of its own.

These are the primary examples of Mr. Alexander's misrepresentations,although there are others. Taken together, the disparaging of apreviously well respected and pioneering numismatist is regretful. Theremoval of Mr. Zerbe's name from the ANA's highest award was basedon these accounts and related accusations, as recounted in the ANApress release and infamous '16 to 1' letter. One only needed to read the last statements in Mr. Alexander's article to understand his truemotivation:

, by David T. Alexander, Coin Week, September 27, 2016.

The Pittsburg Press, March 11, 1903, page 6. Note: The Pittsburg Times ceased publication in 1906 and the referenced article could not be found. Its presumed The Pittsburg Press article of the same date contained the same content.

Supplement to the Numismatist, October, 1908.

Editor's statement, Farran Zerbe, Managing Editor and Publisher, The Numismatist, June, 1909, page 176.

Editorial, Farran Zerbe Managing Editor and Publisher, The Numismatist, July, 1909, page 208.

by F. G. Duffield, The Numismatist, July, 1909, page 221.

by Q. David Bowers, Bowers and Merena Galleries, Inc., 1991, pages 209 - 212..

Letter to the Editor from Herbert Niklewicz, The Numismatist, August, 1909, page 241.

By Douglas Ward, The E-Sylum, Vol. 25, No. 9, February 27, 2022, Article 19.

By Farran Zerbe, A 'loose leaf ' addition in The Numismatist, August, 1908, page 4. Note; Thanks to David Hill of The American Numismatic Society for providing a copy of this document.

To read David Alexander's CoinWeek article, see:
Farran Zerbe: Numismatist - Promoter - Hustler(https://coinweek.com/education/farran-zerbe-numismatist-promoter-h)

To read earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
ZERBE NAME REMOVED FROM ANA TOP AWARD(https://www.coinbooks.org/v24/esylum_v24n39a17.html)
THE 1909 ANA ELECTION BLANK PROXY BALLOTS(https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n09a19.html)
TOP ANA AWARD NAMED FOR CHESTER L. KRAUSE(https://www.coinbooks.org/v25/esylum_v25n18a19.html)