For anyone interested in the LOTR story.There's a man that has produced coins for some time.The site is called Shire Post and they produce special covers and other things.I think the coins are pretty neat myself,although they are only novelty coins. The coins are no longer sold because of a pending law suite by the "Tolkien Enterprises" a group which owns the rights to the Lord of the Rings.This will at least make these first three issues important.Since the law suite the prices have doubled on some coins! Several of these coins are currently offered on ebay,so it is still possible to find them.They look like medieval coinage and really do look like real coins.This is definately a non-serious site,so kick back and enjoy.It's a very entertaining website,enjoy. Here's the link.... http://shirepost.com/Coinage.html
Before the law suite stopping production,the Penny's sold for about $2.00.today I see them going over $8.00 at times.The six Pence goes over $20,same with the three Pence.This is quite an extensive series! I really hope they work something out,it looks like it has alot of potential. If you have the right coins,they could be quite valuable.The 1401 coins in particular look promising.Only 16 Penny's were struck for the first year. I think a complete set would be both interesting and extremely challenging to attempt. 8) Hey,if I'm not careful,this could become a bad hobbit :roll: ~ Jim
Yeah it's a cease and desist order that effectively stops the series.Tom contacted Tolkien Enterprises which owns the marketing rights for the Lord of the Rings.He requested a licencing agreement,what he got was a snotty reply :? about a year later from their lawyer stating basically he was in no position to ask for a licencing agreement,and that all production must imediately stop.The lawyer went on to state Tolkien Enterprises is not evenrequired to respond to his request. :roll: I'm coing to do a article for Mint Error News Magazine about this series and the crumby way Tolkien Enterprises reacted to a polite formal request. Granted,the reply might have been better if it came before the coin series had been produced,but maybe not.I see Canada is producing "Lord of the Rings Coins" (more like medals) so perhaps the RCM has sole rights for producing coins for the LOTR,I don't know what the deal is. It does end a great series of coins though,and that,I'm dead set against! ~ Jim
I think it's sad that they ordered the better more authentic lookinng of the two LOTR coin makers to stop, and in doing so may have crushed a small following of Hobbit loving folks that went as far as to register a hobbit name my self included. I am a huge fan of Tolkin and I think he would have enjoyed the coins and would have been delighted that his book would have spurred the imagination of so many people. :x
It's intellectual theft for this person to be making a profit off Tolkein without having a licensing arrangement. Whether the coins are nice looking or not is not the point. This guy is lucky if all he gets is a mean letter from a lawyer. He's broken the law, and should be punished for it. He's lucky if he gets away with no punishment.
I'm notsaying he didn't break the law but I think Tolkien Enterprises is losing out and gonna lose an area that could be profitable to them in bringing in new customers And keeping old customers
The point is he contacted them requesting a licencing contract and never got a reply.(He has the story on his website.)I only know from what he's put up on the site for information,but it infers that there's much more that's been produced.I doubt that it's in anything but limited quantity too. Now this started as a hobby,and very small scale,so don't judge too harshly.Tom contacted Tolkien Enterprises,and eventually he continued playing around while they considered his proposal. Now,I agree that given the licencing,he would be obligated to reimburse them for a percentage of past sales.(would anyway)Just shutting him down though,was a dis-service to our hobby.I'm wondering now if the Royal Canadian Mint has some kind of 'sole rights clause' from Tolkien Enterprises so their coins(medals?)have no competition. :? I don't know much about the Canadian Mint 'coins' except their always refered to as coins,but the one side they always show looks like a medal set.Anyway, they can be had in quantity on ebay. 8O The whole story about what happened is shown in detail right there at shirepost. ~ Jim
I think the saddest part for me is I have an uncle that lives in Rodgers Arkansas and My Mother inlaw just moved to Springdale where he is located and I was so wanting to visit his workshop here in a month or two on my vacation. That would have been a thrill to see him making an actual coin.
not sure about public domain laws,but Tolkien Enterprises holds sole marketing rights to The Lord of the Rings (only).The Tolkien family still holds rights on the SilmarilianI don't speak "legalese" so I don't know all those details.It's really too bad it interferes with such a cool coin series though. ~ Jim
