John J. Ford Jr.

John Jay Ford Jr.
Born(1924-03-05)March 5, 1924
DiedJuly 7, 2005(2005-07-07) (aged 81)

John Jay Ford Jr. (March 5, 1924 – July 7, 2005) was an American numismatist from Hollywood, California, known for his extensive collection of historical currency and medals.[1] Ford largely collected American coinage, particularly U.S. colonial coins, medals, and obsolete U.S. and colonial currency.[2] Ford was one of the premier experts in the field of numismatics, and it is estimated that the total value of his numismatic holdings was upwards of $55 million at the time of his death.[3]

Early life

Ford was born in the city of Hollywood, California in 1924. Ford's father was a scientist and unsuccessful inventor who "lost all of his money in business failures" before taking his family to Queens, New York.[3]

Ford showed an interest in numismatics from a young age and began to actively collect coins in 1935 at the age of 10 or 11. One of the first pieces of his collection was a Confederate bill which he bought for 15 cents, which would go on to fetch $200 in auction when he sold it years later.[3] He began working at Stack's Coin Shop in New York City in 1939, cataloging stamps for the store.[4] Although he did not take on a full-time job at Stack's until 1942, Ford's career as a collector and trader began in 1941 when he began conducting auctions in his own name (8 such auctions took place from 1941 to 1950).[1]

After building a name for himself through small numismatic dealings, Ford was drafted into the United States Army and served as an army cryptographer during the Second World War.[2][5] His numismatic career resumed when he returned, but not before he briefly worked in other industries.[3]

Career

In 1951, Ford began his association with the New Netherlands Coin Company, a partnership that lasted for twenty years (1951–1971).[1] Not only was Ford part owner of this company, but much of his long-lasting notoriety among numismatists originated from the catalogs that he put together while working with New Netherlands.[3] Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, a time when coin-collecting was becoming more widely popular in a booming post-WWII economy, Ford became a highly influential figure within the field. His meticulous descriptions of the grades, colors, and other qualities of coins through New Netherlands catalogs enabled greater confidence and interest in auction bidding on coins as well as helped spread of numismatic scholarship in the United States.[3]

Ford was also a founding member of the Numismatic Bibliomania Society, an organization created in 1980 at the American Numismatic Association convention held in Cincinnati, Ohio.[6] The Society was founded to stimulate interest in numismatic scholarship and enable greater cooperation between coin enthusiasts and researchers alike.[7] Ford's speech at the inaugural meeting for the Society was later published in one of the first editions of The Asylum, the Society's quarterly numismatic publication."[7]

Western gold bar controversy

Ford was later associated with a major controversy over vintage gold bars that entered the numismatic market from the 1950s onward. Numismatist Theodore Vern Buttrey Jr. alleged that Ford played a central role in marketing, promoting, or supplying provenance narratives for many of the disputed pieces, which were presented as nineteenth-century ingots connected with private assayers, United States Assay Office, or shipwreck recoveries.[8][9][10] While defenders argued that the absence of earlier documentation did not by itself prove falsity and that some Western gold or unparted bars had documented pre-1950 histories.[11][12] No formal adjudication conclusively resolved the dispute, but further numismatic reassessments increasingly treated many of the disputed bars as modern fabrications rather than genuine nineteenth-century ingots.[8][9][13][14][15][16][17]

Collections

Ford's collections include a wide variety of different coins and medals from throughout United States history, dating back to the colonial era.

U.S. colonial era medals, coins, and currency were among Ford's collections. He also was noted for collecting Indian peace medals, pioneer and territorial gold, and a number of obsolete currencies from both American colonies and federal notes prior to 1861.[1] Possibly the most notable items in his collection were Massachusetts notes issued in 1690, considered the oldest currency issued by an American colony.[3]

Along with the rare coins and medals for which he was best known, Ford's collections included "the badges slaves wore when they were rented out for day work, Civil War revolvers and an ashtray owned by Hitler."[3]

Impact

In an article from the New York Times after Ford's death, Q. David Bowers, a well-respected numismatist who has practiced since 1957, is quoted as having said that Ford was "one of the 'most influential figures in American numismatics.'"[3] Ford at times courted controversy, as he reversed the numismatic industry's practice of overpricing coins which went up for auction, even underrating coins to draw more awareness and interest.[3]

Along with his large collections and impact on the numismatic community, Ford was known for having mentored Walter Breen during his time at New Netherlands.[3] While working together, Breen and Ford wrote catalogs for Netherlands that would become quite famous.[3] Breen, who would gain notoriety both for his work as a writer and also for the criminal record that he accumulated throughout his life, was later heralded as the "genius of numismatics" and would go on to write the most comprehensive guide to American numismatics, Walter Breen's Complete Encyclopedia of U.S. and Colonial Coins.[3]

Personal life and death

John J. Ford had a wife, Joan, and three daughters; Susan, Leslie, and Kimberly. Ford died on July 7, 2005, in Phoenix, Arizona, at the age of 81. The first set of Ford's coin holdings were sold in 2003, with the majority of his collections put up for auction after his death.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Company, Collectibles Technology. "Newman Numismatic Portal at Washington University in St. Louis | Comprehensive Research & Reference for U.S. Coinage". nnp.wustl.edu. Retrieved 2017-04-14. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  2. 1 2 "John J. Ford". www.nnp.wustl.edu. Retrieved 2017-05-18.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Martin, Douglas (2005-07-17). "John J. Ford Jr., 81, Dies; Coin Dealer and Collector". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2017-04-14.
  4. ↑ Homren, Bruce Perdue, Wayne. "The Numismatic Bibliomania Society (NBS) - About". www.coinbooks.org. Retrieved 2017-04-17.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  5. ↑ Staff, From; Reports, Wire (2005-07-21). "John Jay Ford Jr., 81; Coin Dealer, Collector of Early American Coins". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Retrieved 2017-05-01.
  6. ↑ Marotta, Michael E. (2012-04-21). "Necessary Facts: Forgery and Fraud in Numismatics". Necessary Facts. Retrieved 2017-04-17.
  7. 1 2 "The Numismatic Bibliomania Society (NBS) - Constitution and By-Laws". www.coinbooks.org. Retrieved 2017-04-17.
  8. 1 2 Buttrey, T. V. (1997). "False Western American Gold Bars". American Journal of Numismatics. Second Series. 9: 96–104.
  9. 1 2 Kleeberg, John M. (2017). "John J. Ford, Jr., Paul Franklin, and their Forgeries of Western Gold Bars". Proceedings of the XV International Numismatic Congress, Taormina 2015. Vol. 2. pp. 1270–1273.
  10. ↑ Bowers, Q. David (8 July 2013). "The Joys of Collecting: New book follows research". CoinWorld. Retrieved 10 July 2026.
  11. ↑ Hodder, Michael (1999). "Western American Gold and Unparted Bars: A Review of the Evidence". American Journal of Numismatics. Second Series. 11: 85–149.
  12. ↑ "Harvey Stack on Ford, Franklin, and False Gold". The E-Sylum. 30 June 2013. Retrieved 10 July 2026.
  13. ↑ Owens, Dan (2009). "The S.S. Brother Jonathan's 1865 Branch Mint Gold Bars". Newsletter of the Society of Private and Pioneer Numismatists: 23–28.
  14. ↑ "False Western and Dawson City Gold Bars". Newman Numismatic Portal. 19 July 2015. Retrieved 10 July 2026.
  15. ↑ "Don Kagin on the Origin of the Pioneer Gold Forum". The E-Sylum. 10 August 2008. Retrieved 10 July 2026.
  16. ↑ "Eric Newman: Additional Information on the Franklin Hoard $20 USAOG Coins". The E-Sylum. 24 August 2008. Retrieved 10 July 2026.
  17. ↑ "New Book: John J. Ford, Jr., and the Franklin Hoard". Newman Numismatic Portal. 23 December 2012. Retrieved 10 July 2026.
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