Franklin Mint
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The Franklin Mint is a private corporation founded in the 1960s, based in Middletown, Pennsylvania, which markets coin-like tokens and other collectibles of its own designs. It was founded by Joseph Segel.
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[edit] History
Descendants of Benjamin Franklin have repeatedly requested the removal of Benjamin Franklin's visage from the advertising of Franklin mint, stating that "Everything these people (Franklin Mint) do would have nauseated our forefather". All requests were ignored or sucessfully fought off in court proceedings by The Franklin Mint.
The mint started by marketing privately-minted gold and silver commemorative rounds and medallions, but quickly branched out into other collectibles. In the 1960s the price of silver rose, causing all silver coins to be removed from circulation. The Nevada casinos used silver dollars in their slot machines, which were soon worth more than a dollar. The Franklin Mint was one of the earliest and largest minters of replacement slot machine tokens.
[edit] Coins and medallions
It minted in its own production facility numerous sets of coins-of-the-realm, theme-based medals and ingots, selling them on the subscription plan, with buyers getting a monthly shipment and invoice. Franklin Mint struck issues in all the different precious and semi-precious metals. American history and art masterpiece themes were predominant, with space, important persons and other topics also quite popular. Sets were often limited by the number of subscribers, by a cut-off date or a fixed mintage, resulting in "limited editions". Prices were fairly reasonable, compared to the cost of silver, and often tens of thousands of sets were sold. Custom wood cases, fancy packaging and certificates appealed to collectors, and the market boomed. However, silver prices climbed, making the cost of larger items high, and replacement bronze and pewter issues did not appeal to collectors as much.
[edit] Books
From 1973 to 2000, the Franklin Mint had a division called the Franklin Library, which produced hundreds of editions of classic works of literature, in what is purported to be fine bindings.
[edit] Other collectibles
In 1983, the Franklin Mint entered the die-cast car market with the 1935 Mercedes Benz 500K Roadster. In the following years, Franklin Mint produced numerous designs including the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost, one of Franklin Mint's better-selling models. Collector knives, figurines, plates, Monopoly sets, chess sets and board games, plaques, and other collectibles have been issued over the years by the Franklin Mint.
The Franklin Mint was heavily reliant upon direct mail and media print ads for sales. Advertisements for Franklin Mint collectibles—including the Civil War Commemorative Chess Set among thousands of other items—were once ubiquitous in popular magazines.
[edit] Changes in ownership and current status
In 1980, Warner Communications (now part of Time Warner) purchased The Franklin Mint for about $225 million. The combination was short lived: Warner sold The Franklin Mint in 1985 to American Protection Industries Inc. (API) for $167.5 million. However, Warner retained Eastern Mountain Sports, a retailer that The Franklin Mint had acquired in the 1970s, as well as The Franklin Mint Center, which it leased back to API.[1] API was renamed Roll International in 1993.
On October 17, 2006, The Franklin Mint announced it was sold by Roll International Corp to a number of private investors including New York financier M. Moshe Malamud and Steven Sisskind, chairman and chief executive respectively from The Morgan Mint, and David Salzman, a Hollywood producer. The sale closed on August 31, 2006 and no price was announced.
The new ownership planned to return Franklin Mint to its former market-leading status and offer the full lineup of collectibles including coins and medallics. Dun & Bradstreet reported 300 workers as of Aug. 2006 and in April 2008 the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the Mint had added an additional 200 employees in 2007 to its U.S. workforce to support its growth.
[edit] Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund vs Franklin Mint
Following Diana, Princess of Wales death, the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund was granted intellectual property rights over her image.[2] In 1998, after refusing the Franklin Mint an official license to produce Diana merchandise, the fund sued the company, accusing it of illegally selling Diana dolls, plates and jewellery.[3] In California, where the initial case was tried, a suit to preserve the right of publicity may be filed on behalf of a dead person, but only if that person is a Californian. The Memorial Fund therefore filed the lawsuit on behalf of the estate, and upon losing the case were counter sued by Franklin Mint in 2003. In November 2004, the case was settled out of court with the Diana Memorial Fund agreeing to pay £13.5 million to charitable causes that both sides agreed on. In addition to this, the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund had spent a total of close to £4 million in costs and fees relating to this litigation, and as a result froze grants allocated to a number of charities.[4]
[edit] Resources
- Guidebook of Franklin Mint Issues by Chester L. Krause, Krause Publications (various editions, 1978). This book lists all issues of the mint, with mintages, original price and then current retail value. The Franklin Mint also issued annual printed lists of items issued that year in The Franklin Mint Almanac. All are out of print.
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Dinger, Ed (1998). "The Franklin Mint". International Directory of Company Histories. 69. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_gx5202/is_1998/ai_n19122709. Retrieved on 2008-05-23.
- ^ Rajan Datar (Last Updated:). "BBC NEWS | Business | Diana's lost millions". News.bbc.co.uk. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4537799.stm. Retrieved on 2008-10-13.
- ^ "BOND funding guide: Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund". Bond.org.uk. http://www.bond.org.uk/funding/guide/diana.htm. Retrieved on 2008-10-13.
- ^ Rajan Datar (Last updated 2004-11-11). "BBC NEWS | Business | Diana's lost millions". News.bbc.co.uk. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/4537799.stm. Retrieved on 2009-04-02.
