Q&A: Are the medals that pour from the presses of private mints in seemingly endless streams good investment items?

The following is excerpted from Clifford Mishler’s Coins: Questions & Answers

Q: Are the medals that pour from the presses of private mints in seemingly endless streams good investment items?

A: They haven’t generally proven to be, but they are seldom purchased for that purpose. The appeal of medals derives from artistic, historical, or nostalgic considerations. Many of the silver issues and series promoted from the mid-1960s through the late 1970s were melted down for their bullion value when the silver price ballooned in the early 1980s, however, providing their purchasers with substantial profits. That phenomenon was repeated to a lesser degree about 25 years later when silver jumped from about $5 to the $20 level. The quantities of some issues and series that survive are probably quite limited, but they generally have not caught on with collectors of historic medals.

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