Craig Sholley submitted these comments in reaction to the piece last week on the Fugio Cent. -Editor

Perfect - thank you! As a numismatic literature collector I've seen many of the older references to the "Franklin Cent," and was hoping someone would pick up on that.

Those of you who attended last week's NNP Symposium panel session "Your Club Publication: Creating and Sustaining Relevance" heard me note that our readers are a prime source of content, and if something is of interest to one reader, it's likely of interest to others as well. But that doesn't mean the reader or I have reviewed or vetted what the third party produced. While I have an extensive U.S. numismatic library at my fingertips, I wouldn't have the time to do that even for the topics that personally interest me. Luckily we're blessed with readers who are not only versed in, but are experts in multiple areas of numismatics. So not much gets past them. A subsequent issue often contains comments or even detailed responses like Craig's.

One must always consider the source. The "Ben Franklin's Fugio Cent" article came from the Foundation for Economic Education, which describes itself as a "newsletter for free-market news and analysis." The Fugio Cent was just a jumping-off point for the writer and most of the article (which I didn't excerpt) discussed Franklin's proposed thirteen virtues for personal development.

Of all the internet platforms (lookin' at you, Twitter and Facebook) Wikipedia is among the best at editing and moderation. There are real editors and enforced standards for citing resources. But without editors versed in numismatics, the question can become one of the sources the authors choose to cite. I'm happy to see references to the Red Book, American Journal of Numismatics, the University of Notre Dame Coin and Currency Collections, and most importantly, this year's announcement of PCGS's reclassification of the Fugio Cent as a regular-issue U.S. coin. But other citations include hobby newspaper articles and blog articles from commercial dealer websites, all of which can be guilty of copying mistakes published elsewhere, a common practice which predated the internet by thousands of years. Notably, the "was designed by Benjamin Franklin" line is not sourced.

Here's a general question - how many times must one walk past a pile of rubbish before one becomes complicit in it being there? Just because you didn't put it there shouldn't stop you from cleaning it up. While Wikipedia could have ended up as just another passing internet fad, it's gained staying power and influence, as the major search engines boost its ranking and feature its content. Here's what we published in The E-Sylum way back in October 2005:

And here's an exchange from 2017:

Are any other readers Wikipedia editors today? Would anyone like to become one? Let us know and The E-Sylum can be a platform for finding and correcting major errors in numismatic topics.

I reached out to reader and contributor Gary Greenbaum for comment. Here's his response. -Editor

"Thanks for drawing my attention to the Fugio cent article.

"As you're aware, I'm active on Wikipedia, especially in the numismatic area. I've never looked at this article and was interested to read Craig Sholley's piece.

"Craig's interesting and well-written piece traces the statement in the Wikipedia article that Franklin designed the coins to an anonymous editor in 2013 and he continues along that line, suggesting from that acorn an internet myth grew. So when I got your letter, I went to the online searchable The Numismatist and searched Franklin Fugio.

"There's quite a lot, some of it more nuanced than others. Mitch Sanders in his November 2009 article (at page 43) that "Franklin's designs also were used for the first official U.S. coin, the 1787 Fugio cent (the same designs appeared on paper money in 1776). Similarly, John J. Kraljevich Jr. (Freedom of Expression, April 2008, pp. 73-76) states that the Fugio cent is based on Franklin's designs and colorfully adds, "When the Congress decided to issue a copper coin in 1787, the body agreed in short order to use Franklin's cartoonthis in an era when Congress moved even slower than it does today. Other articles paint Franklin's connections with varying degrees of certitude. Even Edward C. Rochette, for whom the ANA's Money Museum is named, stated (Franklin was right: time flies, April 1994, pp. 543–544), Now I understand why Benjamin Franklin wanted a sundial and the word "fugio" placed on the first coins issued by the authority of the United States government."

"I found most interesting the report in the January 1958 issue of a reward offered by E.J. Theisen for proof as to the authorship of the Fugio cent. The result: "The offer of $250.00 for information as to the author of the design on the Fugio cent and his own interpretation thereof, which closed Oct. 24, 1957 did not elicit documentary evidence of this nature. There were only six entries, evidencing a lack of interest and acceptance of the current belief as to the author and the interpretation of the design. All entries inclined to the author being Benjamin Franklin, and much research to this end was made by Mrs. Marianne F. Miller of Albuquerque, N. M. which, however, failed to meet the requirements of the offer. Theisen seemed inclined to believe that the designer was Francis Hopkinson, and hoped that future research would back that claim, but apparently that never came to pass. (Reward fails to uncover author of Fugio cent, p. 22)

"I've changed the article (as Craig, or anyone else, could do) to say that by some accounts Franklin designed it; that seems to be where it should rest. If the numismatic world, and the journal of the ANA cannot dismiss Franklin's authorship as a myth, don't expect Wikipedia to. Wikipedia is a tertiary source, meaning it relies on secondary sources such as journal articles for its information, and the ANA's journal, what we Wikipedians would call a reliable source, can't decide on the level of Franklin's involvement. Personally, I have no idea if he was involved. But this isn't an instance where vandalism to Wikipedia started an internet myth."

"I probably should do some Wikipedia editing. The problem I have is I'd end up spending a majority of my time editing the problems I see in various numismatic and related pages instead of researching and writing articles.

"Hopefully, E-Sylum can energize some readers to become data reviewers and editors. If so, I'd be happy to email them a file of all of my past articles as reference material. Most of them are extensively footnoted with sources."

"I was aware of the numismatic references to Franklin supposedly designing all of the devices. However, I will point out that in reviewing the internet postings on the subject starting in 2013, I did not see any reference to any numismatic source.

"I did see a few posts referring to Wikipedia, the first one being in August 2013 on Now I Know (https://nowiknow.com/a-penny-earned/). Since that post is about 2 months after the Wikipedia edit, I concluded the edit was the original source. The rest of the posts I found simply echo-chambered each other.

"That is not surprising. I find that most general internet posts do not reference professional publications. Rather, they simply repeat something found somewhere else on-line."

I confirmed that the Wikipedia article has been changed. Thanks, all! -Editor