The 2003 Wildlife Medal Series..., don't hold back,what do you really think?

ZEBRA18

Just curious what everyone thinks about these new medals which just sold out in a couple weeks by the Mint. The first laser produced medals to be issued by the Powers That Be. Why do you think that they sold out so fast? A mintage of 25,000 is a small number for so many collectors. Do you think (dah) that there will be other issues in the future? What about the people who purchased them. Are most true appreciatists of a beautiful, shiny, first issue by the Mint, or looking to make a buck? I purchased a few,wish I had gotten more. How high will they go, where will they settle? What are your opinions?

cosmicdebris

So far I only have the 1st one in hand I am still waiting to receive the others.

They did a nice job on the first one but if you look close you can see that using the laser the outline is not as good as if they used that old methods.

The laser is nothing fantastic. They simply used it instead of blasting to give the dies some texture.

mintluster

I think they are really nice and I think more than a few are getting them to make a quick buck (like the 2001 Buffalo Dollars), but what is wrong with that?

66Tbird

I'm damm pissed I missed getting the set. The one I have now (Eagle) is flawless and perfect. It is without a doubt a notch above anything I ever seen as far as mint quality goes. I don't want to think about it anymore,,,,,Grrrrrrrrr.

Now that that is off my chest, I'm glad I've got one. The mirrors are so perfect I can read the clock across the room(about 15ft.), and not a hairline to be found. Man I wish I could of got more,Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

beartracks42

I really like the bald eagle. I do not understand the delay on the remaining issues. I see no real advantage in the mint's subscription system, at least on this item.

ursabear

I think they're wonderful. I don't care that they are not "coins", per se. I'm more interested in the quality, subject and manufacture.

ClausUrch

They are nice and I wish I had the money to collect everything nice that I see but I do not so I will pass on these and stick with coins!

Bochiman

I bought them all (only have the eagle so far....like everyone else) for the collectability for my son to grow into.
Having said that, with the outrageous prices they are getting on ebay (2.5-3+ times purchase price), I am very very tempted to sell them all when I get them in hand.
Maybe they will be my first sales on ebay.

I am still kicking myself for cancelling my initial orders of 4 each (dropped down to 1 each until the duck...I have 3 of those on order).
I do wonder, however, about the "pre-order" sales on ebay and the fact that they don't look like they will make the 30 day sales "guarantee"....will people get upset of will they be understanding about waiting more than 30 days and having already paid their money?

cladking

They're very well designed and made and are quite popular. Anything which sells out so
quickly is probably headed higher by virtue of the fact that some procrastinators no doubt
wanted them but hadn't ordered yet. It's not impossible that these can maintain a high de-
mand and hence a high price, but there are no other medals with so high of mintages and
survival rates with high prices. These are extremely high mintages by the standards of me-
dals. There are very few collectors for the bulk of these.

Odder things have happened. Perhaps a popular coin series will indirectly result from these
and they will be linked in the minds of collectors and always enjoy a solid demand.

Conder101

Sold out so quick??? The Buffalo dollar coin and currency set had a mintage of 50,000 and sold out in six days. The Bald eagle has a maximum mintage of 35,000 and has been on sale for almost five months and has only sold 30,000 medals. The Salmon with a mintage of 25,000 took three months (one mone of subscription sales , two months of individual sales) to sell out and the elk after ten weeks is getting close at 23,000 (Again four weeks subscription, six weeks individual sales). That's in the neighborhood of 300 medals a day. Doesn't exactly sound to me like they are really flying off the shelves, or that there will be a big aftermarket demand for them..

MadMonk

My wife is a hard core animal lover. I have considered getting these for her.

khayse

> A mintage of 25,000 is a small number for so many collectors
Oh, I think the number is just fine for the amount of people who will be interested in them.

> How high will they go, where will they settle?
Their issue price is already too high for me.

-KHayse

WWW

These will be very popular among non-coin collectors for quite some time. I showed them to a group of outdoorsy types a while back and they all
agreed that they were very nice looking and asked me to order a set for each of them. However, I think many die-hard coin collectors look at these with a fair amount of disdain. Especially those who did not order any and now see what kind of money they are bringing on the secondary market.

greghansen

Nobody seemed to care about them when the first one sold out quickly.

Sept. Post about Salmon sell out

That post got all of one reply. Now that they are all sold out folks are trying to figure out how that happened. I think they will settle in @ about 2X issue price eventually. I think there were a lot of big orders on the Ducks (last medal) as people were beginning to see what was happening to the others on EBAY.

291fifth

As I said in another thread, if you can make a profit on these medals in the short term take your profit. These are medals, not coins. They will quickly fade from view. If you have any doubts about this look at the (1993) Ben Franklin/Firefighters medal. I recently bought one for $10. Try taking one in to your local dealer and see how much he offers. In most cases I suspect the offer will be for less than melt.