Gallery Mint

nickel

Has anyone heard anything about the Gallery Mint. They have not shipped
our store order , phone number is not in service and one of their e-mails
was returned not delivered .

StrikeOutXXX

The numbers are indeed disconnected. The owner is Ron Landis. I googled him and found he owns a music park down there as well and called that number.

I played dumb and asked the secretary about the mint and the phone numbers, and if it was the same Ron Landis and she unofficially told me the phones would probably not be coming back on and the Mint would probably be "Done".

Here's a link to the music park he owns. There is an e-mail link to him and a phone number if you wanted to press the matter further:

Eureka Music Park

Conder101

Personally I think the loss of the Gallery Mint would be a real shame.

MrHalfDime

"Personally I think the loss of the Gallery Mint would be a real shame"

BigE2

Gallery Mint "done"?? That's a shame!

MacCrimmon

<< <i>Personally I think the loss of the Gallery Mint would be a real shame. >>





IMO, the loss of Joe Rust impacted them greatly. I conned the wife into stopping by for a visit to GMM just before Christmas of 2003 to take a tour, and I'm glad I did (she got a few nights at a B&B in Eureka Springs ). Rust was a true mechanical genius who overcame huge obstacles to "re-discover" manufacturing equipment and coins from scratch.

291fifth

Their auctions of items from their archives didn't help matters. I feel that those auctions cooled off demand for their products.

ScarsdaleCoin

I thought they went not for profit?

BillJones

My view is that the Gallery Mint stuff had a limited shelf life. When I was YN early U.S. coins really turned me on, which explains why when I became an (A)dult N I spent so much of my coin budget on them.

If the Gallery Mint had been around when I was a YN, I probably would have spent more money with them. As an "AN" I purchased just one piece, a 1796 half dollar. That is the only early silver type coin that I don't have. After I purchased that "filler" I found that it was like kissing my sister. She was attractive, but there was no excitement. I imagine that many other collectors feel the same way.

On the positive side there were instances where crooks "circulated" Gallery Mint pieces and then tried to pass them off on the numismatic public as genuine. There was an instance of where they convinced one collector that he had "discovered" a new Sheldon variety. Although the stuff they have sold could still be used for that, perhaps if their run is at an end, we won't have any new pieces to add to that list.

291fifth

I like the Birch cent copies they made. I have one of each. There is no way I would ever be able to afford a real one.

These were one of their later issues.

BillJones

Yes and the later issues were better and looked more like the real thing. I remember a "1795" Flowing Hair dollar they did with a second modern date above it. So long as you had stamped "copy" on the piece, what was the sense in that? Also some of their early die work was pretty comical.

RWB

If GMM is gone, the long term loss is not their reproductions, but the reinvention of obsolete technology and techniques that helped us better understand how 18th and 19th Century coins were made. We know very little about how the practical mechanics at the Philadelphia Mint solved day-to-day problems.

I hope the GMM workbooks and paper archives end up in the ANA library or someplace where they can be accessed and benefit the hobby.

edix2001

According to Mike Ellis, a member of the non-profit Gallery Mint Museum Foundation board, the plans for the museum proceed, but there might be some changes going on within the for-profit Gallery Mint, Inc.
Mike asked me to publish his words on this here since he's not currently subscribed:

"I do not know the status of the Gallery Mint, Inc. However, the Gallery Mint Museum effort is alive and well. The dream of preserving minting technology for posterity sake will come true. It is not for profit and important plans are in the works. The museum will likely continue to manufacture and make available reproduction coinage. Mike Ellis"

I know that this doesn't answer the many questions brought up here, but I believe that, given some time, things will all work themselves out.
Cheers!,
Edwin Johnston

originalisbest

Actually it seems to be their replicas fell off in quality a bit as time went on. The 1796 dollar they made was a very good likeness - the latest 1794 dollar, not so much.

edix2001

I have the 1794/1994 special bicentennial issue, minted in 1994.
From what I read, the original US mint 1794 silver dollar was badly made at the mint itself, so the Gallery Mint design may be trying to reflect that. I think, for example, that the press wasn't made to mint silver dollars, but smaller coins.