I have 6 of these tokens/medallions that say "the Franklin mint across the top edge of the Coin. Beneath it in the center of the token is Benjamin Franklin, and he is facing left. Beneath him it dates 1969 on three of them and 1971 on the other three. On the reverse is an eagle holding or carrying some sort of shield and under that is a banner the says "the Franklin mint. Two of the 1971 tokens have ridged sides while the rest have smooth sides. It looks as if the two with the ridged sides are real silver but I'm not sure what the other four are made of. All of the tokens measure 1.5 inches in diameter. Not sure weight. Now for the error part... They have all seemed to have been struck by something Causing some sort of small dent in the tokens. All the dents are in different spots on each coin. The dents look like some one shot a marble at the coin because they are smooth rounded dents. I've tried to find this token online but can't find it or anything about it. I believe it may be a rare token. I received these from my grandmother about 8 yrs ago in a bag of coins she gave me to add to my collection. I believe her husband at some point worked at the Franklin mint at some point and maybe that's how she received them. If anyone knows anything about this coin please inform me! Thank you!
I think photos of the tokens in question will be required to really judge what this is caused from, from the top of my head, it could possibly be a strike through? or maybe there was actually marbles shot at them pics will really be the way to go (I only say maybe a strike through because I have a quarter in an unopened unciruclated mint set that has a hole in washingtons forehead that sort of resembles what you're talking about) EDIT: BTW, Welcome to CT!
Ok I will post pictures when I wake up in the morning thank you. Could this make the token more valuable?
the dent is right on his forehead if you couldnt tell. only pic i had on hand before i try and get some sleep but i will take more of the rest tomorrow. thanks and what ever help i can get is highly appreciated! by the way whats a strike through?!?
a strike through is when a foreign object is between the die and planchet when it's struck Here is the quarter I found like this, I'm pretty sure it's struck through grease as for added value, I'm not completely sure if it adds any or not, I'm sure other members will weigh in on this.
I'm fairly certain that impression would be from a foreign object. Grease would only cause an area to be weakly struck.
Welcome to the neighborhood! It is a medal rather than a coin. While the Franklin Mint does produce coinage for smaller nations, they do not produce any coins for the US. It is also a good possibility that these are .925 sterling silver because that is what the Franklin Mint uses most often. The "ridges" as you called them are properly called a "reeded edge" and is similar to what you see on US 50c, 25c & 10c coins. You mentioned that you think they were passed along from your (step?) grandfather whom you believed may have worked for the Franklin Mint. This is only conjecture, but it's possible that these were flawed strikes in the course of production, and the indentation was placed on them intentionally by the Franklin Mint so they wouldn't be released for retail sale. It's also possible that they were sold to employees for the melt value of the silver. To me, this would make sense from a business standpoint because it would save them the added expense of melting & refining to make new planchets, and they could (possibly) write off the lost "premium" on their taxes. Chris
Does this affect the value of the medal now? I have only been able to find one silver medal the same size as this and it's exactly the same but In mint condition. This was on eBay for about 200 I believe and it was dates 1972. They called it rare on the eBay listing. Could mine be just as rare or rarer than that one?! And how does the dent on my medal affect the value?
The impression would affect the value enormously. Just because the seller on SleazeBay is asking $200 for it doesn't mean it will sell at that price. Sellers like this typically hype their merchandise in much the same way as the tv coin shows. The Franklin Mint is known for overpricing their medals, and it would be my guess that they sold these some 40 years ago for $20-$30 and that was when silver was hovering around $5 an ounce. Based on it's size of about 1-1/2", it probably contains about 1 oz. of silver. As for rarity, the Franklin Mint was also famous for stating mintages in production days rather than actual mintages. So, it's "limited production" was usually something like 45 striking days. Hah! If they're capable striking 5,000-10,000 per day, you figure it out. Chris
the rest of the coins these are all of them not sure if you can see all the dents.the top three are the 1971 and the bottom are the 1969. the top middle, right and bottom middle have some kind of dried glue on the backs with bits of paper stuck to it maybe. The side showing is the side the medallion was dented on.
These were minted as samples to show the coinage quality. 1969: 39mm Gold on Sterling Proof mintage 50. Nickel Silver Proof Like mintage 5252. 1971: 39mm Sterling Proof 1000, Proof-Like 28,050. Nickel Silver 2650. Franklin Bronze Proof 1500, Proof-Like 9000.
What does all that really mean? sorry but im new to this and im trying to learn as fast as i can. but im not sure what all that really means lol. are they worth more then melt value? what did they do to make the dents? thank you!
Information is from the Guidebook of Franklin Mint Issues. Assuming the catalog is correct, your 1969 medals are Nickel Silver, which actually contains no Silver. The 1971s could be Sterling or Nickel Silver, worth melt if Silver and probably a few dollars if Nickel Silver. I'll leave the id/value of the errors to the error experts.
