The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 36, September 10, 2007, Article 6

DICK JOHNSON'S SCHULMAN-FAROUK ARCHIVE

Dick Johnson writes: "The president of my local coin club,
Mark Sartori, was helping me unpack some boxes that hadn't
seen the light of day for a number of years. Mark was handy
with a hammer and paint brush, and had just built a wall of
shelving for me. We were unpacking boxes in no particular
order to fill empty shelves.

"I opened a box and found an envelope stuffed with documents.
'I'll bet you will recognize this name,' I said to Mark. He
leaned over my shoulder and saw a Christmas card. I flipped
it open. 'Read the name.'

"'Farouk' he said. 'But note the 'R' under the name. R. Regina.
King. That is a Christmas card from King Farouk to Hans Schulman.'
Mark stared in disbelief.

"With the Christmas card was 72 pages of invoices of all the
coins Hans M. F. Schulman had purchased at the Palace auctions
of King Farouk's coin collection sold by the government of Egypt
in February 1954 after the forced abdication of Farouk as monarch
in July 1952. And two of Hans' hand written notes conveying the
material to me. He had originally included the catalogs of the
sale, but had asked for their return, which I had dutifully done.

"Also there are two color photographs taken while the auction
was in progress at the Egyptian palace. I pointed out to Mark
those I recognized. "That's Hans. That's David Spink. That was
a dealer from Spain."  Apparently the photos were taken by
Gaston Di Bello of Buffalo, NY. There was an envelope enclosed
addressed to me. I don't remember asking Di Bello to send me
the photos but here they are.

"Further down was a page of notes identifying most of the
individuals in the photos. At some point I must have asked
Hans to tell me who these people were. It included two Baldwin's,
two Calicos, two Santa Mario's -- all European dealers, and
four more individuals who were also named.

"The auction was bittersweet for Hans. King Farouk was Hans'
biggest customer. And he ended up owing Hans millions of
dollars before the abdication. He tried to collect or to
retrieve the coins not paid for prior to the auction. The only
way he could recoup his money was to buy back as many of the
coins as possible and settle with the government of Egypt. I
don't remember the final outcome or the settlement details.

"But I do remember Hans telling me when Farouk was alive and
king of Egypt they would come to work every day in New York
City, receive the coin orders from Farouk, ship the coins, and
that was their day's work. It wasn't until the end when King
Farouk's payments were slow in coming. It is not good for any
business to have only one customer. What happens when you
lose that one customer? That's what happened to Hans.

"Hans was a dear friend to me. When I was in the medal auction
business he guided consignments my way. He included me in a
coin deal or two. At a coin show once he handed me a cased set
of gold coins. 'Here, go sell that to so-and-so. Sell it for
anything over X amount and make yourself a fat fee.'  Hans was
my first weekly columnist at Coin World. His text came in
written on all kinds of paper as he traveled all over the world.

"And here is a mini archive of Schulman documents. Perhaps I
should have it appraised and offer it to some numismatic writer
who wants to do research or an article on Schulman or Farouk
as a coin collector."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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