XV. Conclusion.

In this study we have exposed the questionable western gold bars to test after test. Again and again the western gold bars have failed these tests. Their gold prices are incorrect. Their fineness is too high. The same fineness is found with consecutively numbered bars, as opposed to the random distribution on the Central America. The weights of the bars are skewed towards the low end of the scale, when economic factors favor large bars. All the evidence suggests that these bars were not made in the West in the nineteenth century. All the evidence points to manufacture in Massapequa Park, Long Island and in Arizona in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s by Paul Gerow Franklin (1919-2000). This is also true of the “Franklin Hoard” USAOG items; the Mexican gold bars; the Saudi Arabian 4 dinar gold discs; the gold coins of Blake, Bowie, Diana, Hall and the Conway $5 without denomination, and the Republic of Texas, F. D. Kohler, and Union Mine counterstamps.

Modern historians have access to an abundance of documentation. Numismatics has only a secondary role to play as evidence, compared to its great importance for ancient and medieval history. There are few areas of nineteenth century U.S. history where numismatics is essential. One of them is the history of the California Gold Rush. Yet here, in the one area where numismatic evidence is vital, it is compromised by these many forgeries. The Smithsonian Institution's Museum of American History has deluded the public with a false vision of the West - with an exhibit that is tainted by the Massapequa Mint products. Standard works on U.S. coinage (Breen, Taxay), as well as specialized works like that of Kagin are riddled with these Massapequa phonies. The Guide Book of United States Coins (the Red Book) has been a laudable exception - since 1970 it has policed this area carefully and now contains only the J. H. Bowie five-dollar piece. If we continue to allow these fakes to compromise the integrity of the historical record, numismatics will become irrelevant - a mélange where truth cannot be separated from fiction. If U.S. history is important to us - if the integrity of collecting Americana is important to us - then these fakes must be identified as such. We must revise the reference works and the exhibits. We must discuss openly the problem of these fakes in auction catalogues and other publications. The marketing of these bars must be stopped before more innocent purchasers get victimized. The time has come to remedy the grievous damage that Paul Franklin and John J. Ford have wreaked upon the study of numismatics. We must expel the Massapequa fakes from the numismatic temple.

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