NBS Symposium Summary: Karl Moulton and the "Franklin Hoard."

On Thursday, August 15, 2013, the Numismatic Bibliomania Society Symposium welcomed guest speaker Karl Moulton, who spoke about his new book, John J. Ford, Jr. and the "Franklin Hoard." There was a good crowd of 30-40 audience members and Moulton spoke for about 30 minutes followed by 30 minutes of questions and further discussion.

Moulton's book generated some buzz in the numismatic community when it was released this summer because of the focus of the subject matter, which has been of interest to many over the past few decades (not to mention the book's hefty 8 pound weight!). The book presents a good deal of documentation relating to the conflict between John J. Ford and Eric P.Newman surrounding the Franklin Hoard.

As Moulton repeatedly stressed during his presentation, this was not his story, but John J. Ford, Jr.'s and he was simply bringing all of the documentation together. In doing so, he tried to remain objective and did not attempt to authenticate or condemn any of the pieces, only to demonstrate the facts.

Moulton discussed his own interest in the Hoard started back in 1967, after John J. Ford, Jr. wrote a lengthy document in an attempt to authenticate the1853 USAOG proof $20 gold coins. One of these coins had been the focus of a Professional Numismatics Guild arbitration hearing the previous year, which questioned the genuineness of those particular pieces. The resulting conflict ignited an interest in Moulton to fully explore the controversy and bring together the facts.

As a final point, there was an audience question that mentioned the 1999 ANA Chicago "Great Debate", which was recorded in VHS tapes, and I was surprised to learn that the only copies of this seem to be those in the ANS Library.

I will have more on Moulton's presentation, the discussion of the controversy, and the audience reaction in my full article in the next issue of The Asylum!

NBS General Meeting Pictures :Here are some pictures provided by past NBS President Dan Friedus from the General Meeting. Thanks!

Here's Dan Hamelberg receiving the 2013 George Frederick Kolbe Award for Lifetime Achievement in Numismatic Literature from Marc Ricard.