JOHN FORD TAPE AND CHARLESTON SLAVE TAGS Public Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 6, Number 50, November 23, 2003, Article 9
JOHN FORD TAPE AND CHARLESTON SLAVE TAGS
Gathering dust in your editor's home office were a set of
audio cassette tapes. They appeared to be unlabeled but
inside the case were notes I'd made indicating that they were
from a previous American Numismatic Association convention.
"I'll label these properly when I have some time," I surely
said to myself, and of course, the time never came. I believe
further research will confirm that these are from the Baltimore
convention in 1993. The note with this tape indicated it was
a recording of John J. Ford speaking at 4pm Thursday, probably
as part of the Numismatic Theatre. I listened to it in my car
over the course of a couple days, and although it was hard to
hear parts of the talk, it was very interesting and informative.One part of the talk touched on coins as an investment, and
he mentioned the 1881-S Morgan Dollar, which is plentiful in
high grades. "I handled 127 bags of 1881-S dollars. That's
127,000 coins. They aren't rare." [I'm paraphrasing here -
this isn't a transcript of his exact words.]As an example of something he collects that IS rare, Ford
mentioned Charleston, S.C. slave tags. Ford had been
accumulating these for years at $100-$200 apiece. His
collection of slave tags was about to be auctioned by Stacks,
and Ford estimated they would bring $1,000-$2,000 apiece.For reference, here are links to some interesting web pages
about the badges.
http://charleston.net/stories/022403/loc_24badges.shtmlhttp://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues03/feb03/object.html
http://www.atlantahistorycenter.com/turningpoint/pages/6.3.htm
http://www.wakeforestcoins.com/slave%20badges/slave%20badges.htmAt the Stack's sale, I believe some slave tags brought
considerably more than Ford's estimates.Ford's other topics included dealer B. Max Mehl, Ford's
discovery of Walter Breen, and a brazen broad-daylight
theft of rare early American medals from the New-York
Historical Society.- 2003-11-23
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