Ralf writes:

Foerster, Feodor: „Jules Fonrobert †", in: Numismatische Zeitschrift, Volume 11, 1879, Wien: Numismatische Gesellschaft in Wien, pp. 446-448.

Jules Fonrobert †. May 22 of last year was the day Mr. Jules Fonrobert passed away inFreienwalde / Oder after a long period of suffering following a stroke. He was a formermember of our numismatic society and known as an avid coin collector far beyond thiscircle.

Born on September 4th, 1831, as the first son of a man of private means, LouisFonrobert - founder of the German rubber and gutta percha industry -, who passed away afew years ago, Jules Fonrobert was of very tender physical constitution. The protection heneeded from a very early age on was the reason why he spent a large part of his childhoodwith relatives in a little town near to Berlin. Later he attended to the business school inBerlin, where he was prepared for a career in commerce, and completed an apprenticeshipwith one of the important banks in the city. Following this, he went to New York, where hespent several years working diligently with the local representative of the House ofRothschild.

His commercial abilities increased such that he, after his return to Berlin, togetherwith an uncle, took over his father's company and led it to unprecedented success, whichestablished the basis for his not inconsiderable wealth.

Interest in numismatics had already been sparked in Fonrobert during his stay inAmerica. There he laid the foundation to a general collection of medieval and modern coins,starting out just like any collector. It was only later, after having studied my specializedcollection of coins and medals from overseas, that he developed deeper interest in this field,and decided to concentrate on overseas coinage from now on.

Equipped with a rarely encountered vigorous mind and, as mentioned, considerablefinancial means, he not only set in motion all coin dealers and collectors known to him, buthe was also able, through his extensive commercial connections, to buy whole collections,thus achieving unprecedented results in his collecting strive.

Since his business and social responsibilities consumed the majority of his time, hecould not bring order into the massive amount of numismatic material that he assembled, sohe was forced to look for outside assistance. Due to his distinctive knowledge of humannature, he was able, in 1878 (1), to win one young numismatist, Mr. Adolph Weyl, to devotehimself completely to select, sort and describe those items from the holdings useful for thecollection. Within a short time, the collection grew so rapidly that the decedent came to thedecision to give up the European coins and medals, with the exception of Brandenburg-Prussia, and to instruct a numismatic auction house with their sale.

After the company chaired by him for many years, had been transformed into apublic corporation in 1871, Fonrobert did have some more time at his disposal and he cameto the decision to edit a work on the numismatic history of the overseas countries, based onthe specialized collection that he still augmented with all his forces, as well as on itemspublished or present in other coin cabinets. For this purpose, he had drawings and woodcutsmade of many coins.

However, while he was indulging in his hopes of seeing his favourite idea beingcompleted on a magnificent scale, he was struck by a nervous condition. This forced him in1877 to have his collection of Brandenburg-Prussia catalogued and brought to auction by thelong-time curator of his collections.

It was only afterwards, facing the fact that his daily declining health would make thecompletion of his favourite plan impossible, that the deceased decided with heavy heart tohave a catalogue made of his overseas collection, to save his objective from oblivion, nowthat it was impossible to realize it to the planned extent.

Adolph Weyl, knowledgeable long-time caretaker of this magnificent collection,completed this difficult task within the short period of 1 c years, and by this provided animmense and not to be underestimated service and guide to the coin collectors seeking toidentify coins from overseas.

Let us honour the deceased, who pursued the preparation of his catalogues with aneagerness seldom encountered, as well as his intentions that did not come to fruition, withthe wish:

Berlin, October 1879
Dr. Feodor FoersterTranslated by Ralf W. Boepple, November 2012
(1) Translator's note: this date is clearly too late and should most likely read 1868

First, pull your copy of E.E. Clain-Stefanelli's Numismatic Bibliography (Battenberg, 1984) off the shelf and turn to p. 1564. Here you will find listed Jules Fonrobert's obituary in the Numismatische Zeitschrift (1879), vol. 11, pp. 446-448. I obtained a copy of this (in German, of course) and translated it myself; this is the same source Mr. Boepple used. (Fonrobert's first name is incorrectly given by Elvira here as Julius.)

An additional short notice is found in Adolf Weyl, Die Jules Fonrobert'sche Samlung ueberseeischer Muenzen und Medaillen. Amerika. I. Abthilung: Nord-Amerika. Berlin, Adolf Weyl, December 1877, Vorwort (pp. v-vi).

Also, though not mentioned in my book, "Fonrobert, Jules 1831-1879 (Germany)" was an Overseas Member of the Royal Numismatic Society from 21 Nov. 1872 until his death 22 May 1879" (R.A.G. Carson and H. Pagan, A History of the Royal Numismatic Society, London 1986, p. 77). He was also a member of the Societe Royale de Numismatique de Belgique 1872-1879 (150th Anniversaire de la Foundation de la Societe...1841-1991, 1991, p. LXX).

Mr. Boepple questions the date of 1878 given in the obituary. He is probably right that 1878 should be corrected to 1868 or maybe 1870. (I omitted this in my account.)

This is not the first time Fonrobert's existence has been challenged. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that "Fonrobert" was a pseudonym for the true owner (see Mr. Battle Born, Mr. Fairbanks, H.R. Lee, etc., etc., and for that matter, Jay Roe himself), though he seems to have been able to join the national numismatic societies of at least three countries under this name if so. In any case, with an exhaustive collection like this, there had to be a wealthy collector behind it. So I think that the biographical details are essentially correct.

The bigger mystery is, how did Fonrobert get all his U.S. coins? So far as I know, he is not listed as a buyer in any U.S. auction of the period, including the time he spent in New York as a representative of the House of Rothschild. No doubt he used agents, but perhaps he ignored the auctions and bought entire collections en bloc as his obituary states.

Finally, here is the text of the Fonrobert material which appeared on p. 81 of the 2nd ed. of California Pioneer Fractional Gold, Wolfeboro, 2003 (not a scan--the book is way too valuable to do this now):