Experts at SPPN meeting settle four decades of uncertainty

A panel of leading numismatists determined the questionable 1853 United States Assay Office of Gold $20 proof, prooflike, and similar coins to be forgeries produced from transfer dies. The panel’s discussion was the main program at the annual meeting of the Society of Private and Pioneer Numismatists (SPPN) held in Baltimore, Maryland Saturday, August 2nd, 2008 as part of the American Numismatic Association’s World Fair of Money.

The Transfer Die Forgeries first appeared during the late 1950’s, “discovered” by Paul Franklin through a bank teller in Arizona. Franklin and John J. Ford Jr. sold hundreds of these pieces throughout the 1960’s as genuine pieces struck in San Francisco by the U.S. Assay Office in 1853. An arbitration hearing of the Professional Numismatists Guild in the late 1960’s ruled that the pieces were not proof, but could not come to an agreement on the authenticity or vintage. For the next forty years the authenticity of the Franklin Hoard pieces lay in question.

In 2006 Donald Kagin, Ph.D. and David J. McCarthy of Kagin’s, Inc. of Tiburon, Calif. were processing images of one of Kagin’s client’s collection for the upcoming 2nd edition of Private Gold Coins and Patterns of the United States. McCarthy noticed that the client’s unquestionably authentic 1853 Assay Office $20 bore bag marks in the same location as repeating depressions on the questionable Franklin Hoard coins. The marks of the original coin appear on all of the Franklin pieces, despite the best efforts of the forgers to evidently hide them with die polish. The panel agreed that the discovery of this authentic coin and the matching of the marks was the “smoking gun” in the case, condemning all of the Franklin pieces as the products of a one-to-one transfer die made from this authentic host coin.

At the conclusion of the discussion moderator Kagin asked the panel to accurately and succinctly title the coins in question. The experts unanimously agreed these pieces are best described as Transfer Die Forgeries. The panel also agreed efforts need to be taken to educate the numismatic community about these false coins.

The approach and decision of the panel is historic, creating a model for future forums to discuss other numismatic controversies. The SPPN would like to seek answers to other mysteries and controversies in the field of pioneer numismatics and is soliciting future topics for discussion.

The Society of Private and Pioneer Numismatists has been a non-profit organization since 1992. Membership is $35 per year and includes a subscription to the Brasher Bulletin, a thrice annual publication featuring articles by leading Private & Pioneer coinage experts and historians. S.P.P.N. is operated from the offices of Kagin’s, Inc. in Tiburon, CA. For further information, please contact Kagin’s, Inc. at 888.8KAGINS or 415.435.2601.

NGC has unveiled the design of its newest holder at the American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money. The holder will be used for encapsulation of NGC-certified coins beginning late-August 2008. The most visually significant change is the incorporation of NGC’s EdgeView® design which suspends a coin within four prongs, allowing for clear view of the encased coin’s edge. This feature will be available for nearly all coin types 40mm and smaller.

The newest generation of NGC holder is made from the same preservation-grade materials as the holder developed by NGC to house the 200 most rare, unique and famous American coins in the Smithsonian’s National Numismatic Collection. The Smithsonian conducted rigorous materials analysis and testing to confirm the long-term safety of all of the components used in the manufacture of these holders, further verifying their inertness and stability.

Several state-of-the-art anti-counterfeiting features have been integrated into the holder’s design. These include a high security label incorporating microprinting, UV-light responsive watermarking and an embedded holographic layer. A second hologram is fused to the back of the holder and was developed with new methods that make it virtually impossible to reproduce.

“Our newest holder satisfies NGC’s combined objectives of exceptional visual display, security and long-term preservation,” comments Steve Eichenbaum, CEO of NGC. “To achieve this, we relied on technology that quite simply did not exist when the last generation of our holder was released in 2001. It is without question the most extensively tested and technologically advanced coin holder ever created.”

By Miki Perkins for THE AGE

THE crowd of medal collectors breathed a collective sigh and craned in their seats as Australia’s first piece of colonial art sold for $750,000 at auction to a beaming mystery buyer seated in the third row.

Minutes later, it was revealed that the National Maritime Museum had bought the Charlotte Medal — a silver disc engraved by the convict and expert forger Thomas Barrett when the First Fleet arrived at Botany Bay. Even the most hardened medal collectors paused in their bidding to clap.

Very little material survives from the ships of the First Fleet, so the Sydney museum sent its assistant director of collection and exhibitions, Michael Crayford, to Melbourne to secure a seminal piece of Australian history.

“It is also one of the best artworks for that period (so) we’re absolutely thrilled to have it and it will be on display to the public within weeks,” Mr Crayford said.

The silver disc was sold by John Chapman, a retired dentist, who bought it at auction in 1981 for $15,000.

The rest of his extensive collection of Australian medals, coins and banknotes, valued at $1.6 million before auction, also went under the hammer at the Noble Numismatics auction yesterday. (more…)