Question about US Mint Medals

[bsshog40]

Does anyone know why the mint charges $3.50 for a 1 5/16" medal and $38 for a 3" medal? I mean the 3" is only a little bit over twice the size but the price difference is almost 11x value.

 

[WoodenJefferson]

Why not ask this guy:

 

Edmond C. Moy

Director of The US Mint

801 9th Street, NW

Room 8S23-3

Washington, D.C. 20220

[BillJones]

I'm sure it all has to do with the amount of force and number times that the medal has to be struck in order to bring up the image. I'm guessing, but I image that the relief is higher on the 3" medals than it is on the 1 and 5/16 piece. That too makes the piece harder and more expensive to strike.

 

The more times you have strike the piece to get the design to come up the higher the cost. The more times you have to strike the piece, the greater the die wear and the more often the dies have to be replaced. The wieght you have to use to strike the medal, the greater the die wear.

 

These numbers are very old and apply to coins, but back in the 1950s it took 45 tons of pressure to strike a silver dime. For a silver half dollar, it took 100 tons. The average number of coins made per die was 700,000 for dimes and 500,000 for half dollars. The bottom line is the larger the piece, the more it costs to make it.

 

Information source: "How United States Coins Are Made" by Walter Thompson

[Conder101]

It isn't twice the size. Believe it or not it is a little over five times the size 45.58 square cm as compared to 8.7square cm. And like Bill says the relief is much higher as well so you have to have a MUCH heavier press, and multiple strikings, possible annealing of the medal between strikes, trimming of the medal after it is struck up etc. It is just a LOT more work to strike a large medal.

[bsshog40]

Thanks Bill & conder. That sounds logical to me!