Franklin Mint
Encyclopedia
The Franklin Mint is a private corporation founded by Joseph Segel
in 1964. The private mint operated from Wawa, Pennsylvania
but that operation has now closed. The company is now owned by a private equity
firm and has limited operations in Exton, Pennsylvania
, marketing coins, jewelry, diecast
s, dolls, sculpture and other collectibles.
and silver
commemorative
rounds and medal
lions, but branched out into other collectibles. The Franklin Mint was one of the earliest and largest minters of slot machine tokens
.
s, selling them on the subscription plan, with buyers getting a monthly shipment and invoice. Franklin Mint struck issues in many 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".
, which produced hundreds of editions of classic works of literature, in what were purported to be fine bindings. Franklin Mint purchased the Sloves Book Bindery in NYC to help jumpstart its book division in the 1970s. The most recent book offerings were produced by RR Donnelly for the Franklin Library.
, the Philadelphia Orchestra
under Eugene Ormandy
and the New York Philharmonic
under Leonard Bernstein
.
car market with the 1935 Mercedes Benz 500K Roadster. In the following years, Franklin Mint produced several 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 including the three dimensional chess game featured frequently in the TV series Star Trek
, plaques, and other collectibles have been issued 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.
(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. API was renamed Roll International in 1993.
During the early 2000s, Roll International divested and wound down much of the Franklin Mint business. On August 31, 2006, Roll International Corp sold the remaining assets of The Franklin Mint to a group including a private equity investor and The Morgan Mint. That investor exited its investment in 2009 with new investors coming in to recapitalize the company. The new ownership is restoring The Franklin Mint by re-introducing previous products and expanding their lineup of collectibles.
was granted intellectual property rights over her image. 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. 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 (US $21.5 million) to charitable causes on which both sides agreed. In addition to this, the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund had spent a total of close to £4 million (US $6.5 million) in costs and fees relating to this litigation, and as a result froze grants allocated to a number of charities.
Joseph Segel
Joseph Segel is the founder of over 20 American companies, most notably QVC, an American television network, and the Franklin Mint, a producer of mail-order collectibles. He has been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Electronic Retailing Association and an honorary doctorate from...
in 1964. The private mint operated from Wawa, Pennsylvania
Wawa, Pennsylvania
Wawa is an unincorporated community located in Middletown Township in Delaware County, Pennsylvania. Named for the Ojibwe word for "goose" ,Wawa was originally known as Grubb's Bridge...
but that operation has now closed. The company is now owned by a private equity
Private equity
Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....
firm and has limited operations in Exton, Pennsylvania
Exton, Pennsylvania
Exton is a census-designated place in West Whiteland Township, Chester County, Pennsylvania, United States. Its population was 4,842 at the 2010 census. The Exton Square Mall is located within Exton along with several other shopping centers, making Exton the major shopping district in Chester...
, marketing coins, jewelry, diecast
Die-cast toy
The term die-cast toy here refers to any toy or collectible model produced by using the die casting method. The toys are made of metal, with plastic, rubber or glass details. Wholly plastic toys are made by a similar process of injection moulding, but the two are rarely confused...
s, dolls, sculpture and other collectibles.
History
For five decades The Franklin Mint produced and marketed "collectibles". Their product line began with manufacturing and marketing privately-minted goldGold
Gold is a chemical element with the symbol Au and an atomic number of 79. Gold is a dense, soft, shiny, malleable and ductile metal. Pure gold has a bright yellow color and luster traditionally considered attractive, which it maintains without oxidizing in air or water. Chemically, gold is a...
and silver
Silver
Silver is a metallic chemical element with the chemical symbol Ag and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it has the highest electrical conductivity of any element and the highest thermal conductivity of any metal...
commemorative
Commemorative coin
Commemorative coins are coins that were issued to commemorate some particular event or issue. Most world commemorative coins were issued from the 1960s onward, although there are numerous examples of commemorative coins of earlier date. Such coins have a distinct design with reference to the...
rounds and medal
Medal
A medal, or medallion, is generally a circular object that has been sculpted, molded, cast, struck, stamped, or some way rendered with an insignia, portrait, or other artistic rendering. A medal may be awarded to a person or organization as a form of recognition for athletic, military, scientific,...
lions, but branched out into other collectibles. The Franklin Mint was one of the earliest and largest minters of slot machine tokens
Casino token
Casino tokens are small discs used in lieu of currency in casinos. Colored metal, injection molded plastic or compression molded clay tokens of various denominations are used primarily in table games, as opposed to metal token coins, used primarily in slot machines...
.
Coins and medallions
It minted in its own production facility numerous sets of coins-of-the-realm, theme-based medals and ingotIngot
An ingot is a material, usually metal, that is cast into a shape suitable for further processing. Non-metallic and semiconductor materials prepared in bulk form may also be referred to as ingots, particularly when cast by mold based methods.-Uses:...
s, selling them on the subscription plan, with buyers getting a monthly shipment and invoice. Franklin Mint struck issues in many precious and semi-precious metals. American history and art masterpiece themes were predominant, with space
Outer space
Outer space is the void that exists between celestial bodies, including the Earth. It is not completely empty, but consists of a hard vacuum containing a low density of particles: predominantly a plasma of hydrogen and helium, as well as electromagnetic radiation, magnetic fields, and neutrinos....
, 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".
Books
From 1973 to 2000, the Franklin Mint had a division called the Franklin LibraryFranklin Library
The Franklin Library, the distributing arm of the publishing division The Franklin Press , was the United States' largest distributor of great 'classic title' books produced in fine bindings for collectors—similar to the mantle carried now by Easton Press—until the company permanently closed,...
, which produced hundreds of editions of classic works of literature, in what were purported to be fine bindings. Franklin Mint purchased the Sloves Book Bindery in NYC to help jumpstart its book division in the 1970s. The most recent book offerings were produced by RR Donnelly for the Franklin Library.
Recordings
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Franklin Mint released a series of recordings on heavyweight virgin vinyl under the title of "The 100 Greatest Classical Recordings Of All Time." These were pressed on unique red vinyl in bound cases, as a subscription service, typically with two 12" LPs per transmission, using recordings of major-label classical musicians including the NBC Symphony under Arturo ToscaniniArturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
, the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
under Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...
and the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
under Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
.
Other collectibles
In 1983, the Franklin Mint entered the die-castDie-cast toy
The term die-cast toy here refers to any toy or collectible model produced by using the die casting method. The toys are made of metal, with plastic, rubber or glass details. Wholly plastic toys are made by a similar process of injection moulding, but the two are rarely confused...
car market with the 1935 Mercedes Benz 500K Roadster. In the following years, Franklin Mint produced several designs including the Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost
Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost
The Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost refers both to a car model and to one specific car from that series.Originally named the "40/50 h.p." the chassis was originally produced at Royce's Manchester works, before moving to Derby in July 1908 and also, between 1921 and 1926, in Springfield, Massachusetts....
, one of Franklin Mint's better-selling models. Collector knives, figurines, plates, Monopoly
Monopoly (game)
Marvin Gardens, the leading yellow property on the board shown, is actually a misspelling of the original location name, Marven Gardens. The misspelling was said to be introduced by Charles Todd and passed on when his home-made Monopoly board was copied by Charles Darrow and thence to Parker...
sets, chess sets
Chess piece
Chess pieces or chessmen are the pieces deployed on a chessboard to play the game of chess. The pieces vary in abilities, giving them different values in the game...
and board games including the three dimensional chess game featured frequently in the TV series Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
, plaques, and other collectibles have been issued 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
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
Commemorative Chess Set among thousands of other items—were once ubiquitous in popular magazines.
Changes in ownership and current status
In 1980, Warner CommunicationsWarner Communications
Warner Communications or Warner Communications, Inc. was established in 1971 when Kinney National Company spun off its non-entertainment assets, due to a financial scandal over its parking operations and changed its name....
(now part of Time Warner
Time Warner
Time Warner is one of the world's largest media companies, headquartered in the Time Warner Center in New York City. Formerly two separate companies, Warner Communications, Inc...
) 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
Eastern Mountain Sports
Eastern Mountain Sports is an outdoor apparel and equipment retailer in the U.S. Northeast headquartered in Peterborough, New Hampshire.EMS sells outdoor equipment and clothing from both name brands and its own EMS line...
, a retailer that The Franklin Mint had acquired in the 1970s, as well as The Franklin Mint Center, which it leased back to API. API was renamed Roll International in 1993.
During the early 2000s, Roll International divested and wound down much of the Franklin Mint business. On August 31, 2006, Roll International Corp sold the remaining assets of The Franklin Mint to a group including a private equity investor and The Morgan Mint. That investor exited its investment in 2009 with new investors coming in to recapitalize the company. The new ownership is restoring The Franklin Mint by re-introducing previous products and expanding their lineup of collectibles.
Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund vs Franklin Mint
Following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial FundDiana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund
The Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund is an independent grant-giving foundation established in September 1997 after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, to continue her humanitarian work in the United Kingdom and overseas...
was granted intellectual property rights over her image. 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. 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 (US $21.5 million) to charitable causes on which both sides agreed. In addition to this, the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund had spent a total of close to £4 million (US $6.5 million) in costs and fees relating to this litigation, and as a result froze grants allocated to a number of charities.
See also
- Danbury MintDanbury MintThe Danbury Mint, is a division of MBI, Inc. that markets a variety of collectibles. Danbury Mint historically marketed high quality medals and ingots produced by others exclusively for them. The company also sold numerous other collectible offering including plates, bells, sculptures, etc...
- National Collector's MintNational Collector's MintNational Collector's Mint, Inc. is a company based in New York that sells collectible coins, privately produces commemoratives and contracts the minting of non-circulating legal tender coins under the auspices of foreign nations.-Products:...
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.