This is a very nice article. However, someone might pick a bone or two, oreven an ossuary's-worth, about the put-down of John J. Ford, with respect to his stinginess about sharing information.

1. Ford developed and disseminated numismatic information thru hisdetailed descriptions in New Netherlands auction catalog auctions. It took a while, but in time the likes of Q. David Bowers and Carl Carlson followed his lead. For a few decades now, a fairly scholarly standard of numismatic cataloging has been de rigeur. Ford also had a relationship with Douglas Ball, PhD, who elevated paper money cataloging at NASCA, in the belief that 'rag pickers' would pay more if you treated them like buyers who could read.

2. Ford hired Breen.

3. Ford was on a panel discussion at the ANA, I believe with BruceAmspacher. He was marvelous, whether discussing Amspacher's unholed '1820'Beaver token or Mint-basement 60-lb bags of prooflike Morgans. Don'tunderrate the informational valence of a raconteur.

4. Ford did not write books and articles, it is true. He did writeletters that read like encyclopedia entries.

5. Perhaps most significantly, Ford who admired talent, shared hisextensive acumen telephonically with Michael Hodder. I believe JJF expected that, as a cataloger, Michael would be entrusted to convert a sprawling collection into an explosion of data. Which Michael did.

6. Ford was also an important collector of Western Americana. I believethe Time-Life books published on the subject feature photos of many Fordpieces.

All this being true, I still wish JJF had published more.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
JEFF GARRETT ON SHARING YOUR COLLECTION(https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n37a31.html)