The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 18, May 6, 2007, Article 15

BASHLOW GOLD CONFEDERATE CENT RESTRIKE INFORMATION SOUGHT

Harold Levi writes: "In recent months some thin planchet gold Bashlow
Confederate cent restrikes have shown up.  One was even graded,
authenticated, and encapsulated by NGC, which had belonged to Art
Kagin.  Based on information received from David Laties (Bashlow's
business partner), only three gold restrikes were made.

"Laties has confirmed that his copy is double thick (piedfort) and
weighs 14.5 grams.  Dr. Richard Doty checked the Smithsonian Institution's
copy, donated by Bashlow and Laties.  It is piedfort and weighs 14.475 grams.  
All of this information has come to me over the last week.

"The only confirmed thin Bashlow restrikes are mentioned in a letter
written by Bashlow to Tom DeLorey in 1976.  The confirmed thin planchet
restrikes are only in bronze and silver, as far as is known.  This
letter was published in E-Sylum: Volume 9, Number 46, November 12, 2006.

"I believe that only the three piedfort gold Bashlow restrikes were made,
as confirmed by David Laties and Walter Breen.  However, does anyone have
any information of any kind about gold Bashlow restrikes. My e-mail
address is haroldlevi@hotmail.com."

Per Harold's request I forwarded his query to Dick Johnson.  Dick writes:
"I was involved with the Bashlow Confederate restrikes at the beginning
and at the end of his project.  I remember it well, as well as Robert
Bashlow personally. (I had visited him at his New York City apartment
and at his one-room storage vault deep within a Manhattan storage
company - where the floor was literally covered with bags of foreign
coins - you had to walk on top of the bags - he was actively dealing
in foreign coins at the time).

"I had just started Coin World in 1960 when Bashlow first had the
August Frank company make copy dies from the original dies he acquired.
He advertised these in early Coin World issues and we publicized these
rather widely. For a special Civil War issue of Coin World I believe
we ran a special feature article on his project.

"At the end of this is when Medallic Art Company purchased the August
Frank company assets, including the dies, in November 1972. I was
charged with cataloging these. We hired an August Frank employee,
William Neithercott, to assist in this cataloging. He remembered
Bashlow, and he was still proud of what the firm had done in sinking
new copy dies and striking these replicas for Bashlow a dozen years
earlier.

"Unfortunately, there were no Bashlow dies amongst the 7,000 dies
acquired from August Frank in 1972. He must have retrieved every
one of them.

"As for the gold restrikes, I have no memory of these.  My only
suggestion is to search the early issues of Coin World, they may
have been mentioned in one of the Bashlow articles or advertisements.

"Shortly after this Bashlow crossed Coin World publisher John Amos,
who prohibited his further advertising. I don't remember what caused
this but he became persona non grata in the pages of Coin World
afterwards. (This was long before the same thing happened to Walter
Breen, who had also been embargoed from Coin World pages, under the
editorship of Margo Russell.)

"I know of no other documentation on these Bashlow replicas."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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