ON THE TUTORSHIP OF JOHN J. FORD

This is a very nice article. However, someone might pick a bone or two, or even an ossuary's-worth, about the put-down of John J. Ford, with respect to his stinginess about sharing information.

1. Ford developed and disseminated numismatic information thru his detailed descriptions in New Netherlands auction catalog auctions. It took a while, but in time the likes of Q. David Bowers and Carl Carlson followed his lead. For a few decades now, a fairly scholarly standard of numismatic cataloging has been de rigeur. Ford also had a relationship with Douglas Ball, PhD, who elevated paper money cataloging at NASCA, in the belief that 'rag pickers' would pay more if you treated them like buyers who could read.

3. Ford was on a panel discussion at the ANA, I believe with Bruce Amspacher. He was marvelous, whether discussing Amspacher's unholed '1820' Beaver token or Mint-basement 60-lb bags of prooflike Morgans. Don't underrate the informational valence of a raconteur.

4. Ford did not write books and articles, it is true. He did write letters that read like encyclopedia entries.

5. Perhaps most significantly, Ford who admired talent, shared his extensive acumen telephonically with Michael Hodder. I believe JJF expected that, as a cataloger, Michael would be entrusted to convert a sprawling collection into an explosion of data. Which Michael did.

6. Ford was also an important collector of Western Americana. I believe the Time-Life books published on the subject feature photos of many Ford pieces.

Agreed, all around. Ford did indeed share information verbally, and was absolutely a raconteur, "a person who is skilled in relating stories and anecdotes interestingly". I saw this firsthand when I first met him at the famous "Invasion of Louisville" sponsored by my other new friend that day, Armand Champa. He held court and kept his audience in rapt attention throughout the day, myself among them.

He indeed led by example with the groundbreaking (at the time) scholarly New Netherlands catalog descriptions, which are table stakes now for entering the numismatic auction business, and with Breen supported the next generation of cataloguers.

He was certainly stingy with information on the contents of his own vast collections, perhaps not wanting to educate anyone who might one day bid against him for a true rarity. But the eventual unveiling of his amazing collection brought much new knowledge to the numismatic world, through the excellent cataloging of Mike Hodder, as Paul noted.

And he continued to cultivate numismatic talent, albeit in his own grumpy old man way. On Tuesday I learned that as a young cataloger at Dave Bowers' companies, John Kraljevich regularly received 5pm phone calls from Ford, who would complain about mistakes, omissions or other problems with his published catalog descriptions. When JK asked Hodder about why he got these calls, he was told that Ford "thinks you're salvageable" as a numismatic researcher... -Editor