Franklin Mint question

amiller

Were the Franklin Mint issues for Bahamas, Jamaica, Trinidad, Panama, and Tunisia sanctioned by the respective governments and considered legal tender? Did any of these circulate or were they merely made for collectors? I am trying to decide if I want to collect these based on whether they are government sponsored or are exonumia.

Thanks!
Aaron

Doogy

<< <i>Were the Franklin Mint issues for Bahamas, Jamaica, Trinidad, Panama, and Tunisia sanctioned by the respective governments and considered legal tender? Did any of these circulate or were they merely made for collectors? I am trying to decide if I want to collect these based on whether they are government sponsored or are exonumia.

Thanks!
Aaron >>



Yes. They were minted by the Franklin Mint under the direction of each of the countries you spoke of, and more. They were legal tender in those countries, but i heard that they weren't widely circulated in their respective countries. They were primarily minted because many of these small countries didn't have their own mints, and wanted to have some nice coins minted. The Franklin Mint was minting these at their privately owned mint, in Philadephia I believe. I read a couple years ago that the '74 Panama Gold $100 coin was the first gold coin minted in the United States after the gold ban was lifted.

I've owned some Franklin Mint gold coins, and i was always very impressed with the overall quality of their minting. In fact, i think you'll find the same is true of most all of their prloducts; they may not command a high price on the collector market, but they are exceptionally well made for the money. Good luck!

Doug

oldshep

The coin sets for the caribbean islands minted at the Franklin Mint are without a doubt some of the most beautiful designs you can fine and the quality of the coins is exceptional. I have always wondered why these beautiful silver sets are not more popular. They are a geat, affordable group to aquire.

Shep

trozau

I have a 1977 Philippines 5000 Piso proof gold minted by the Franklin Mint for the Philippine Government. There are BU examples as well but they never circulated. As an ex-pat, I was never aware of their existence until I got here to the US and saw them on eBay. Having an actual gold content of @ 2 troy ounces, I just had to get 1 for myself.

7Jaguars

Well, let's be honest. They are very beautiful at times and were technicall supposed to be legal tender but were more of a marketing ploy by Franklin Mint to make some money whilst "dealing" some out to the host countries. A few may have more interest in others such as Papua New Guinea which are currently striking coins of the same design as those evidently first made at the Franklin mint. Examples are the smaller denominations from 1 toea up through 1 kina.

I think what has possibly and righrfully happened is that these series are collected much as if they were medallic series, and the market has pretty much been saturated with such (think silver rounds, art medals, etc.).

Sapyx

Were the sanctioned by the respective governments? Yes. Did those governments receive a share of the profits from the sale of these coins? Certainly they would have at least received the seigniorage, the difference between issued face value and scrap/bullion value, but the Franklin Mint would have received the bulk of the remaining profits.

Were they legal tender? Yes. If they weren't, they wouldn't be listed in the main Krause catalogues, they'd be shuffled off to the "unusual" volume.

Did they circulate? No. I'm not aware of any Franklin Mint coins that were actually used in circulation, anywhere. The Franklin Mint was set up to churn out thousands of collector coins, not millions of circulation ones. In several instances (Jamaica and Belize come to mind), the Franklin Mint coins have different designs to the ones actually struck for circulation. In the case of Belize, radically different!

Would it have been possible to go to those respective countries and buy the Franklin Mint coins? Not very likely. Any collector or coin dealer in the nominal "home country" of these coins would have had to order them from the Franklin Mint like everybody else.

7Jaguars

Interestingly I have seen in some Brit auctions where the alleged accumulations of government banking officials have come up for sale; I can specifically think of Papua New Guinea where there was a collector folder of 82 coins of all denominations in the matte finish of 1975-1977.

As I have said, I note that with this country at least that the design was preserved and struck up by either the Royal Mint or Canadian or Australian up through the current date. I believe that these coins did in some cases go to the host country, at least in matte form and not the PL form that were in the "mint sets" during these 1975-77 years at least, and that various coins have come up (I think including Belize) with supposedly government bank official provenance.


Panama is interesting in that these are quasi-American coins though denominated in balboas and seem to have a small following. I think the ebay seller "57tbird" or something like that either worked at Franklin mint or had connections and he has these for sale occasionally at what seem to be escalating prices.

newbiecollector

<< <i>The coin sets for the caribbean islands minted at the Franklin Mint are without a doubt some of the most beautiful designs you can fine and the quality of the coins is exceptional. I have always wondered why these beautiful silver sets are not more popular. They are a geat, affordable group to aquire.

Shep >>



I agree shep. I have one of those sets and love it. I also have a few other Franklin Mint coins and like them a lot. They may be bullion to many but they catch my eye