The E-Sylum:  Volume 7, Number 16, April 18, 2004, Article 13

FALSE WESTERN BARS SITE CREATED

  [John M. Kleeberg forwarded the following press
  release about a new website.  I've eliminated
  biographical sketches for brevity, and, not wanting
  to fan the flames of the "Great Debate" controversy
  any further, I've also edited out a section "naming
  names" of the alleged forgers.  Readers are referred
  to the web site for more detailed information. -Editor]

  "Dr. John M. Kleeberg and Professor T. V. Buttrey have
  established a website, entitled "How the West was
  Faked."  Its web address is: "How the West Was Faked"

  The website comprises a large essay by Dr. Kleeberg
  (also entitled, "How the West was Faked") and the
  first of several shorter essays by Professor Buttrey.
  Professor Buttrey's essays discuss the bars ostensibly
  from the "Brother Jonathan" shipwreck, the bar
  supposedly made by the "Duke of Carlisle," and the
  false Mexican gold bars.  Dr. Kleeberg's lengthy essay
  may be conveniently downloaded as a PDF file.  Dr.
  Kleeberg and Professor Buttrey intend to add to the
  website as their research progresses."

  "In a preface introducing the website and the essays,
  Dr. Kleeberg and Professor Buttrey write:

  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 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."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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