I'm posting this mainly out of low level frustration: I started by collecting Franklin Mint issues of Jamaica as many sets of the early to mid-70s are easily obtained, and sometimes for less than bullion value even now. Well I found that those of the mid-80s were much tougher, namely the 1984 set and single proof and uncirculated 10 dollar coin of that year. I then consulted Krause and found that there were later year sets, and slowly began to collect those. I then found that some years were much harder to locate than others despite all but the 1985 having a listed "mintage" of 500 sets. In fact some seemed to NEVER appear, and some years were not even listed by Krause yet seemed to exist. So in the now-elapsed 10 years I would say that those from 1996-2001 are much scarcer, and although listed have YET to see a 2002 set. As this seems to be the case I have written the Royal Mint twice without response, asking what the actual number of sets minted were, and how many were actually released and SOLD. So the authorized mintage was 500, but how many are there actually of each year? The Bank of Jamaica (BoJ) similarly does not know really anything at all, and if they keep records nobody knows where they are. What seems to be fact judging from the Cayman Islands is that not the full authorized number are necessarily struck as we know some of the sets from the post-Franklin Mint 80s were only struck to about 60% of the authorized number. It is interesting to note that this was a time (1985-2002) where the economy in Britain and Jamaica were not very strong - to say the least - and the designs of at least the Jamaica coins VERY UGLY with poorly done and boring renditions of National Heroes taking the place of the formerly beautiful wildlife and plantlife designs. Anyway, if anybody has other information, please feel free to pitch in!
You say that you've written the Royal Mint, may I ask why ? I mean the silver rounds are being minted by the Franklin Mint, according to your own words - not the Royal Mint. So why are you writing to them ? Seems to me you should be writing to the Franklin Mint. Maybe then you'll get some answers.
Sorry I left out that Royal Mint took over minting 1985-2002 with Franklin striking through 1984 and long since halted minting.
A little surprised that nobody seems interested in this issue. I mean how scarce or common are world coins struck by the Royal Mint or others, despite what published "mintage" figures are. As I have stated, it seems that how many actually released to collectors can vary quite a bit from these figures....
I guess the reason the nobody seems interested is because, and I hate to put it this way - nobody cares. You see, what you are talking about aren't even thought of as coins. To most of the world they are considered to be little more than novelty items. So quite frankly, nobody, or at the most very, very few, collect them. So however many were minted, doesn't really matter, nor does it affect their value. To give you an example of what I am talking about this coin, if memory serves the mintage was 135 or thereabouts - - and it was piedfort essai struck in gold. But I was able to buy it for considerably less than melt, which is the only reason I did buy it - its gold value. And there are many coins like this, minted by various countries all over the world, some with mintage numbers under 25. And yet they never sell for more than their bullion value, if they have any, because nobody wants them. It's the same thing with the coins you're talking about. And realize, I am in no way belittling the coins you choose to collect, I am merely trying to explain why you will have a hard time finding answers, and why coins like these have little if any value.
Yes, quite right. However there were really two issues, one (and the most important) is that the Royal Mint is not forthcoming with statistics of all types. This even affects GB coins minted to the tune of many thousands... Also, the main focus of my collecting is late milled British silver and copper but since I have so few currency pieces left just monkey about with some of these RM issues for the challenge of it. Your point, the second was that nobody seems interested in the general point, not these sets themselves. I don't really care if they are or are not and actually prefer there to be low interest in my area of "chase". BTW, I also like these French pieforts, and don't give the proverbial edited if anybody else collects them either.
Nor should you, collect what you like because you like it. Far more collectors would be far happier if they did that. As for the mint not responding to you, the occasion that they, or any other mint, would ever respond to anybody is so rare that I have never heard of it.
LOL! Isn't that the truth! Not if you read their Facebook page where they supposedly entertain questions!!
Our beloved us mint responds and it responds very nicely. In this aspect it will always be my favourite mint.
Maybe they are nice to US citizens. One time I asked them why I was no longer allowed to order. Sent e-mails - no reply. Called - got a general and evasive answer. So I even wrote a letter (you know, on paper ...) and got a printed letter back, with instructions about how to order. None of these "instances" bothered addressing my actual question. In general, mintage figures are not always made public. Especially when a mint makes coins for some other country, the contract may say that this is confidential information. Not sure whether this is the case here (Royal Mint production for Jamaica) but could well be ... Christian
You know, that last is a good point. Might be a bit embarrassing to let the actual figures out. On the other hand it makes for some rare and very hard to find sets and coins which is of course part of the fun of the whole thing. RM struck for Jamaica a Danish astronomer coin (Tyco Brahe?) with some huge listed mintage in the tens of thousands and yet it shows up maybe twice a year at most in all of the ebay auctions and goes for a pittance - even I had to leave it alone for how ugly and relatively pointless it is. Interestingly, the supposed actual figures for Cayman Islands 1986 & 7 were 317 and 318 versus the limit mintage of 500. They are quite rare as well, and interesting because the Royal mint used OLD FRANKLIN MINT DIES WITH THE FRANKLIN MINT LOGO on three of the coins in the sets of '86 and two in '87; still used the FM dies on two of the '88 coins but removed the mintmark. They also did this with their Royal Mint "Birds of Belize" 1985 set, wherein the FM reverse bird die designs were used for all denominations.
Well my experience has been very different. No matter how many times I critcize the mint. It remains the only torch in this dark jungle
Not quite sure what you mean? US Mint, I guess, not the Royal Mint. I think the US Mint has been quite forthright. I still buy Britannias from the RM but wonder why they don't answer - sort of like conspiracy theory as it makes me think they may not want that information out for fear of endangering contracts, or whatever other interest they may have.
