FALSE WESTERN BARS SITE CREATED Pubblico Deposited
The E-Sylum: Volume 7, Number 16, April 18, 2004, Article 13
FALSE WESTERN BARS SITE CREATED
[John M. Kleeberg forwarded the following press
release about a new website. I've eliminated
biographical sketches for brevity, and, not wanting
to fan the flames of the "Great Debate" controversy
any further, I've also edited out a section "naming
names" of the alleged forgers. Readers are referred
to the web site for more detailed information. -Editor]"Dr. John M. Kleeberg and Professor T. V. Buttrey have
established a website, entitled "How the West was
Faked." Its web address is: "How the West Was Faked"The website comprises a large essay by Dr. Kleeberg
(also entitled, "How the West was Faked") and the
first of several shorter essays by Professor Buttrey.
Professor Buttrey's essays discuss the bars ostensibly
from the "Brother Jonathan" shipwreck, the bar
supposedly made by the "Duke of Carlisle," and the
false Mexican gold bars. Dr. Kleeberg's lengthy essay
may be conveniently downloaded as a PDF file. Dr.
Kleeberg and Professor Buttrey intend to add to the
website as their research progresses.""In a preface introducing the website and the essays,
Dr. Kleeberg and Professor Buttrey write:Over half a century and more a variety of false gold
ingots purporting to derive from the 19th century
West, as well as from 18th century Mexico and Arizona,
have appeared on the market.The ingots have been sold directly to collectors, or
offered at auction by various dealers. The largest
single collection of this material was assembled
privately by Josiah Lilly, who believed them to be
genuine. These are now owned by the nation, as part of
the numismatic collection of the National Museum of
American History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington.This series of essays clarifies the origin and history
of the false bars as a phenomenon, and more
particularly of certain types of the bars whose
fraudulence can be demonstrated in detail. There is
also a discussion of the false prooflike $20s,
allegedly made by the United States Assay Office of
Gold in 1853, from the "Franklin Hoard"; these are
traced to the same two forgers.The essays will also consider the unhappy effect that
this false material has had not only on collecting but
on serious study and scholarship."- 2004-04-18
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