Richard Margolis wrote in 1992 that he caught the collecting bug early, recalling, “one look at a friend’s numismatic collection on a day in 1943 that I can still clearly remember, and I was hooked.” Among his interests were the medals of Benjamin Franklin, which neatly aligned with the collector’s interests in French numismatics.

The sale of his collection offered two examples of the 1790 Franklin “The Lord of Lightning” medal. The silver one graded MS-62 by Professional Coin Grading Service is thought to be unique in private hands with a reverse showing a collection of Franklin related objects — a Dutch-style free hat, globe, books, an electric battery and a broken scepter with chains. It sold in Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ March 25 offering of Part I of the Richard Margolis Collection for $66,000

In the next lot, one in copper graded MS-64 brown by PCGS sold for $72,000. When offering a bronze example in 1884, W. Elliot Woodward called it a “Proof” and “the handsomest and rarest of all the Franklin medals.”

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