An account of false Western American "assay bars" and other similar material, their production, distribution, and corrosive effect on numismatic study
The present offering is the first part of a work in progress. Further essays will be added in the near future.
Over half a century and more a variety of false gold ingots purporting to derive from the 19th century West, as well as from 18th century Mexico and Arizona, have appeared on the market. The forgers who made and marketed these bars were Paul G. Franklin (1919-2000) of Massapequa Park, Long Island, and John J. Ford, jr. (1924-2005 ) of Rockville Center, Long Island. Both moved to Arizona in the 1960's.
The ingots have been sold directly to collectors, or offered at auction by various dealers. The largest single collection of this material was assembled privately by Josiah Lilly, who believed them to be genuine. These are now owned by the nation, as part of the numismatic collection of the National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington.
This series of essays clarifies the origin and history of the false bars as a phenomenon, and more particularly of certain types of the bars whose fraudulence can be demonstrated in detail. There is also a discussion of the false prooflike $20s, allegedly made by the United States Assay Office of Gold in 1853, from the "Franklin Hoard"; these are traced to the same two forgers.
The essays will also consider the unhappy effect that this false material has had not only on collecting but on serious study and scholarship.
