NNP Blog

4 DECEMBER 2021

F.C.C. Boyd Colonial Paper Money Inventory

Recently scanned by Newman Portal is the inventory of colonial paper money from the F.C.C. Boyd estate. Michael Hodder wrote of the Boyd collection in the Ford III (Stack’s, 5/2004) catalog: “Despite not having many reference texts to assist him, he built the basis for what may be the most comprehensive private collection of Colonial American paper currency ever formed.” Eric P. Newman was able to personally inspect portions of the collection as they were sent to him for review, c. 1963, by New Netherlands (Charles Wormser and John J. Ford, Jr.), who handled the Boyd estate. The file includes correspondence related to possible acquisitions by Newman. This appears to have not occurred, and the Ford sale catalogs indicate that many pieces were acquired by Ford from the Boyd estate. Numerous examples from the Boyd/Ford collection were used for plate images in Newman’s Early Paper Money of America (first edition, 1967), and these likely trace to this period in the early-1960s when Newman had access to the material. The inventory includes notes by Walter Breen, who would have been enlisted by New Netherlands for the task.Link to the F.C.C. Boyd Colonial paper money inventory: https://archive.org/details/boydfccinventory1963epnresearchLink to John J. Ford, Jr., sale catalogs: https://archive.org/details/newmannumismatic?and%5B%5D=%22john+j.+ford%2C+jr.+collection%22&sin=