2018 Huntington Award to John Kleeberg, “William H. Sheldon, Ted Naftzger & the Large Cent Thefts.”
Following the presentation to Dr. John Kleeberg, former Curator at the American Numismatic Society, of the 2018 Archer M. Huntington Award in recognition of outstanding career contributions to numismatic scholarship, Dr. Kleeberg delivers the Silvia Mani Hurter Memorial Lecture.
Dr. Kleeberg’s lecture discusses the the theft of US Large Cents from the ANS in the late 1940s by Dr. William H. Sheldon and the ANS’s attempts to recover the coins ever since. Dr. Kleeberg has longstanding ties to the ANS, having been elected a Fellow of the Society in 2003 and serving as the Society’s Curator of Modern Coins and Currency from 1990 to 2000. He arrived with an already distinguished academic background: he graduated from Yale University with a double major in History and Classics and received a D.Phil. in Modern History from Oxford University with his dissertation “The Disconto-Gesellschaft and German Industrialization: A Critical Examination of the Career of a German Universal Bank, 1851–1914.” In 2003 he received a law degree from New York University School of Law, after which he was employed as the Senior Restitution Claims Associate, Swiss Deposited Assets Program (2004–2010).
Currently, Dr. Kleeberg is Historical Analyst for the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, Inc. Dr. Kleeberg’s impressive publication record includes two books, both of which reflect the thoroughness with which he has approached all his scholarly research. They are: Numismatic Finds of the Americas: An Inventory of American Coin Hoards, Shipwrecks, Single Finds, and Finds in Excavations. Numismatic Notes and Monographs 169; and (with David T. Alexander) An Island of Civility: The Centennial History of the New York Numismatic Club 1908/09-2008/09. He has also delivered many papers, edited books on a wide range of subjects, written numerous book reviews and literature surveys, and critically, contributed some 76 articles, many of which can be grouped under the broad headings of: Coin Hoards/Treasure Trove and Shipwrecks; Counterfeiting and Forgeries; Countermarks / Counterstamps and Minting Technology; and Numismatics and the Law. They also include 16 studies on modern Irish, Dutch, German, British, and international coinage, 12 articles on New York numismatic history, and 12 biographical sketches. Among the latter are “Frank Campbell and the ANS Library: An Appreciation,” in The Colonial Newsletter; and, in American National Biography, both “John Sanford Saltus,” the prominent supporter of the arts for whom the ANS Saltus Award is named, and a look at George Hubbard Clapp, donor of the ANS’s large cent collection.
“John Kleeberg is a numismatic scholar par excellence,” says ANS Executive Director Dr. Ute Wartenberg. “The committee was particularly impressed by Dr. Kleeberg’s scholarship in a great variety of subjects, which made him an obvious choice for this prestigious award. A true contrarian, he often challenges longstanding interpretations in his research, but he is also dedicated to setting American and modern coins in their historical context. “
