The E-Sylum:  Volume 6, Number 23, June 8, 2003, Article 6

THE FIRST SLABBED NUMISMATIC CATALOGUE

  Fred Lake writes: "Reading about the upcoming auction(s) of
  John J. Ford's library by Stack's/George Kolbe and the
  description of  John's insistence on acquiring material in the
  best condition possible reminded me of his appearance at the
  NBS General Meeting held in July, 1993.

  There, John held up a catalog of the Stack's, March 17, 1993
  sale of the Herman Halpern Collection of United States Paper
  Money.  This sale catalog had been mailed to him several times
  by Stack's and each time the catalog was damaged in some
  manner by the Post Office.

  John contacted Martin Gengerke at Stack's and insisted on
  receiving a pristine copy.  Martin arranged to have the catalog
  sandwiched between two pieces of Lucite and taped at the
  edges very neatly with duct tape. Thus was born the first
  "slabbed" catalog. I was fortunate enough to catch the famous
  moment with my trusty Minolta and so preserved the record
  of a catalog that could not be read, but would forever be in
  Mint 70 condition.   I believe the photo was published in
  "The Asylum" that year.

  As a postscript, I had the photo enlarged to 8 x 10 and
  enclosed in a suitable wood frame with glass covering the
  picture. Before packaging the frame for delivery to John, I
  took the wrapping paper to my driveway and ran over it
  several times with my truck, leaving some very distinct tire
  marks. Needless to say, John was amazed that a package
  could be run over by a truck and yet the contents were
  undamaged."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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