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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;GSDykes, post: 2192642, member: 73321&quot;]I may want to ask you some further questions. I stopped at 1980 as that was when their mint basically quit producing quality products. The new owners were not numismatically oriented. As to the Princess Diana affair, which occurred AFTER 1980, note this quote from Wikipedia:</p><p><br /></p><p><font size="5"><b>Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund vs Franklin Mint </b></font>Following the death of Diana, Princess of Wales, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana,_Princess_of_Wales_Memorial_Fund" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diana,_Princess_of_Wales_Memorial_Fund" rel="nofollow">Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund</a> 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 jewelry. In California, where the initial case was tried, a suit to preserve the <i>right of publicity</i> 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, was <span style="color: #ff0000">countersued</span> by Franklin Mint in 2003. In November 2004, the case was settled out of court with the <span style="color: #ff0000">Diana Memorial Fund agreeing to pay £13.5 million (US $21.5 million)</span> 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.</p><p>end quote</p><p><br /></p><p><font size="4">It would appear that the Mint suffered little damage from this. I think most of the damage occurred with the fluctuating prices of silver and gold, and the 60 Minutes accusations, these all occurred at about the same time. The offer from Warner communications was attractive.</font>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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