This week's Numismatic News announced that John Ford's
unique 1783 Nova Constellatio pattern set will be on
display at Stack's table at the ANA Convention next week.
Wow! To me, this set is the ultimate U.S. numismatic treasure,
far more important historically than the King of Siam set
(of 1804 Dollar fame).

The coins were struck in April 1783 for Robert Morris,
and were the first attempt to create a national coinage for
the new government. The denominations were based on a unit
equal to 1/440th of a Spanish Milled Dollar. The silver "mark"
was 100 units, the "quint" 500, the "bit" 100. The smallest
was a copper "5".

The following is the story of Ford's acquisition of the set,
as near as I can remember it. I have a tape recording of a talk
he gave one time, and spoke to him in person about it once. He
had a lot of explaining to do to his wife when he needed to liquidate
other assets to come up with some cash after the Garrett sale.

Ford bought the copper "five" in 1977. It was found in a Paris collection
and was sold to a U.S coin dealer who thought it was a pattern for
the later Nova Constellatio copper coinage - he didn't realize it was the
missing link in the Morris set (the other three silver pieces resided
in the Garrett collection at Johns Hopkins University). The dealer
offered it to a wealthy collector who in turn asked John Ford for his
advice. The collector met Ford in midtown Manhattan while on the way
to a fishing trip. As the two shared a cab, the collector pulled the
piece from his shirt pocket and showed it to Ford.

"How much should I pay for it" he asked. "Just buy it," Ford said,
recognizing the significance of the piece. "But how much is it worth?"
"Just BUY it - whatever it takes - BUY it!" The collector put the piece back
in the pocket of his fishing shirt, and left for the woods. When he later
contacted the dealer, the asking price was $20,000, and the collector balked.
He sent the coin back to the dealer.

Before long John Ford got a call himself from the dealer, and later bought the
piece for his own collection. Two years later, Ford bought the remaining
three pieces at the Garrett sale for $425,000. The set of four coins
that passed through the hands of Morris and Thomas Jefferson was united again
after nearly 200 years.

After holding the set for 15 years, Ford is apparently putting it up
for sale. "The price is available on request." Those of us who'd have to
ask, can't afford it. But this collector will make sure he takes the
opportunity to see the coins before they disappear for another 15 years or
more.

Wayne Homren
Pittsburgh, PA
homren@cgi.com

To read the complete article, see:CLM: 1783 Nova Constellatio set for sale(/groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/rec.collecting/TkJyjIKj124)