Five Facts
Gerald Tebben
Gerald Tebben, a Coin World columnist for more than 30 years, also contributes to Coin World’s Coin Values and edits the Central States Numismatic Society’s journal, The Centinel. He collects coins that tell stories.
Coin World’s bloggers are not edited by Coin World’s editorial staff and blog posts reflect the views of the individual author.
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Advertising once fostered the belief that future generations would want these “heirloom” pieces, but only the rising price of silver has saved this Franklin Mint material from the dismal fate of Avon bottles and Beanie Babies.
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Advertising once fostered the belief that future generations would want these “heirloom” pieces, but only the rising price of silver has saved this Franklin Mint material from the dismal fate of Avon bottles and Beanie Babies.
This 1971 set of 40 Franklin Mint medals honoring the first ladies of the United States contains 41 ounces of silver. It sold for $578.785 at auction in 2014, essentially its value as bullion. The original purchase price was $9.50 a medal, or $380 for the set.
The Franklin Mint was a marvel of marketing and good design.
Entrepreneur Joseph Segel (who would go on to found QVC shopping
network) created Franklin Mint in 1964 to craft and sell commemorative
medals and coins. Former U.S. Mint Chief Engraver Gilroy Roberts, who
designed the obverse of the Kennedy half dollar, signed on to head the
artistic side of the enterprise.
The result was set after set of
beautifully designed commemorative medals that were sold to the
public through ubiquitous newspaper, magazine and direct mail
advertising in the 1960s and ’70s.
The advertising fostered the belief
that future generations would want the “heirloom” pieces and pay big
money for them. Noncollectors bought the company’s medals by the
millions, apparently unaware that few people actually collect medals.
Buyers bought the medals – usually
sterling (0.925 fine) silver – on a subscription basis, at the rate
of one or two medals a month until a set was completed.
The 1971 20-medal Great American Landmarks set is fairly
representative of the mint’s products. Each 39-millimeter medal
contained 1.04 ounces of silver and depicted a historic place, such as
Mount Rushmore and the Alamo. The medals sold for $9.50 each.
At the time, silver was selling for
$1.55 an ounce, giving the Franklin Mint a handsome profit. The
situation was ripe for disaster for buyers who tried to sell.
However, the rising price of silver
saved Franklin Mint material from the dismal fate of Avon bottles
and Beanie Babies. Silver soared in the ’70s, briefly topping $50 an
ounce in 1980. Franklin Mint buyers were in clover.
While a few sought-after Franklin
Mint medals sell at a premium to silver because of their subject
matter, most of the private mint’s products trade as bullion.
Even with silver trading at $14.89 an
ounce as I write this, the original buyers of most Franklin Mint
medals are above water, giving them a rare win in the collectibles marketplace.
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