a little help from medals collectors

[rons]

I am going to an estate auction tomorrow and they have listed several medals from the American Arts Commemorative Series. These are gold and either 1 ounce or 1/2 ounce. Are these collected strictly for bullion value or is there an intrinsic value as well? I am looking at a 1982 Frank Lloyd Wright. Since I know nothing about these but just admire the man should I just bid melt? Where might I find values for this type of "coin" ? Thank you for any asistance you can provide

[cpm9ball]

I'm not familiar with the American Arts Commemorative Series. Which company produced them? Are you sure they are solid gold and not 10k, 14k, plated, etc? I know that private mints like Franklin, Danbury and MACO produced many different "themed" medals, but you don't often see them in solid gold. I would want to be sure before I placed any bids.

 

Chris

[jgrinz]

I found this dealer that was selling them at SPOT plus $10 so they are appearently gold.

 

American Arts Gold Series

 

[Just Bob]

That's a nice looking set!

[RWB]

They sell for their intrinsic metal value.

[BillJones]

The mint issued these medals quite a few years ago (in the mid to late 1970s I think). They came along before the modern commemorative series got started. For whatever reason, the government did not feel comfortable about issuing commemorative coins during this period.

 

They were not all that common, and they have probably gotten scarcer since a number of them have gone to the melting pot. The trouble is collectors like coins (pieces with a face value) NOT medals. Therefore these pieces never took off. I think that they are still selling for around their melt value, which is pretty high right now because of the gold spot price.

 

[Zoins]

That is a nice looking set.

 

Has NGC started slabbing these US Mint pieces?

[TomB]

The US Mint came out with these in the early 1980s and they can still be had at bullion value on ebay. In my opinion they are not the best designed pieces, which is one reason why I have never purchased the group.

[Conder101]

The trouble is collectors like coins (pieces with a face value) NOT medals.

Another reason they were never popular was because the government set up a convoluted method for ordering the medals. You had to go stand in line at the post office and pick up an order form. The form would be time stamped by the post office. You then had to leave the post office and go call a phone number to get a quote for the price and write it on the form. Then you had to go back and stand in line at the post office again to have the form time stamped again. There was a limit to how far apart the time stamps could be. (I don't remember how long it could be. The time period was short because gold was quite volatile at the time the rules were drafted.) If it was too long the form was invalid and you had to start over. If it was good then you could place the order, paying for it with Postal money orders only.