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The Franklin Mint is a private corporation based in
Exton, Pennsylvania which markets collectibles of its own designs.
It was founded by Joseph Segel.  
The company started by marketing privately-minted gold and silver
commemorative rounds and medallions, but quickly branched out into
other collectibles. In the 1960s the price of silver rose, causing
all silver coins to be removed from circulation. The Nevada casinos
used silver dollars in their slot machines, which were soon worth
more than a dollar. The Franklin Mint was one of the earliest and
largest minters of replacement slot machine tokens.
 
It minted in its own production facility numerous sets of
coins-of-the-realm, theme-based medals and ingots, selling them on
the subscription plan, with buyers getting a monthly shipment and
invoice. Franklin Mint struck issues in all the different precious
and semi-precious metals. American history and art masterpiece
themes were predominant, with space and 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". Prices were fairly reasonable, compared to the
cost of silver, and often tens of thousands of sets were sold.
Custom wood cases, fancy packaging and certificates appealed to
collectors, and the market boomed. However, silver prices climbed,
making the cost of larger items high, and replacement bronze and
pewter issues did not appeal to collectors as much.
 
From 1973 to 2000, the Franklin Mint had a division called the
Franklin Library, which produced hundreds of editions of classic
works of literature in fine bindings.
In 1983, and to much success, The Franklin Mint entered the die-cast
car market with the 1935 Mercedes Benz 500K Roadster. In the
following years, Franklin Mint produced numerous 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, plaques, coins, medals, and other collectibles
have been issued over the years 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.
Currently The Franklin Mint has divested itself of minting capacity,
and has downsized, and is now mostly a producer/marketer of diecast
models. On October 17, 2006 The Franklin Mint announced it was sold
by Roll International Corp to a number of private investors
including M. Moshe Malamud and Steven Sisskind, chairman and chief
executive respectively from The Morgan Mint, and David Salzman, a
Hollywood producer. The sale closed on August 31, 2006 and no price
was announced. The new ownership plans to return Franklin Mint to
its former market-leading status and offer the full lineup of
collectibles including coins and medallics.
 
Many of the Franklin Mint's most recent Resnick era products were
pop-culture icon themed, for example porcelain plates featuring
images of John Wayne among many others.
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