The Franklin Mint Expresses Interest in Acquiring Recently Shipwrecked Coins from 'Black Swan'

EXTON, Pa. (BusinessWire EON) May 19, 2007 --     The Franklin Mint is no stranger to multi-million dollar "buried treasure" finds. This March, the company announced that it had acquired hundreds of thousands of coins from the famous El Cazador, "the shipwreck that changed the world" by sparking a series of events that led to the Louisiana Purchase and the doubling in size of the United States over 200 years ago. This was the most historically impactful find of its kind in U.S. history.

"Coins recovered from shipwrecks are truly one-of-a-kind pieces of treasure, and The Franklin Mint has a long history of enhancing and securing the potential value of historic finds such as El Cazador," commented M. Moshe Malamud, chairman of The Franklin Mint and a life-long collector. "To many consumers, being able to own an authentic piece of American history and pass it on from generation to generation is priceless. We congratulate Odyssey on this extraordinary discovery, and it is our intent to discuss ways in which we can work with Odyssey to maximize its great potential value."



Recovered, restored and then authenticated by the Numismatic Guaranty Corporation, the El Cazador silver Reale coins - the immediate predecessor to the U.S. Dollar - were made available to the public for the first time in April. The Franklin Mint kicked off its offering of El Cazador treasure with a multimillion-dollar sales event on QVC, and the ship's artifacts hold an estimated value of over $100,000,000.

For more information on the El Cazador find, go to http://www.elcazador.com.

Photos of the El Cazador treasure are available through Getty Images as well as at http://franklinmint.com/newsmedia.

About The Franklin Mint

An American institution founded in 1964, The Franklin Mint is known worldwide for its innovative design, meticulous attention to detail, and creating some of the highest-quality collectible products in the world. The Franklin Mint's peerless archives includes over 12,000 product lines, including "limited edition" fine art sculptures, heirloom collectible dolls, commemorative coins, designer jewelry, precision die-cast models and historic reproductions, as well as collections honoring some of the world's most revered individuals and institutions. As one of the originators of many direct marketing techniques still used today, The Franklin Mint has brought collectibles to tens of millions of people around the world for over four decades. The Franklin Mint's product lines have included some of the all time, best-selling collectible products including Monopoly - The Collector's Edition, the original Civil War Chess Set and numerous successful licensed programs with Chevrolet, Elvis Presley Enterprises, Ford, General Motors, Harley-Davidson Motorcycles, John Wayne, Marilyn Monroe, The Smithsonian Institute and Paramount Studios, just to name a few. The Franklin Mint is privately held, with ownership whose holdings also include The Morgan Mint.

KEYWORDS: El Cazador Franklin Mint Shipwreck Treasure Odyssey Marine Exploration Black Swan

Related Articles:

What Makes Gold Coin Investment A Better Option
People are always looking for a safe avenue of investment. The problem with almost all the low risk investment options is that the returns are also rather low. Gold coin investment however can be considered an exception. In most low risk cases, the investment results are not able to match with the levels of inflation and the investor loses money when it comes to the final calculations. On the other hand the price of gold is able to keep up with inflation in most cases.

Getting the Best Price for your Hammered Coins
If you have managed to get your hands on an old hammered coin then you may be surprised to find out exactly how valuable they are. For the past decade the price that hammered coins sell for has generally continued to rise, more so in portrait coins of Henry V111, EdwardV1, Elizabeth 1, James 1 and Charles 1 coins than many earlier including Celtic. Through being prudent in your approach to selling, you may find that someone will be willing to pay a very fair price.

Why You Need To Buy and Sell Gold Coins (Part 3)
Putting Rare Coin Market Cycles to Work for You..

New Jewish Coins Use Old Wisdom To Aid In Life Balancing
SoulCoin offers timeless wisdom through unique coins. SoulCoin has just released The Humility and Joy Coin Set, two 1.5 inch brass coins based on a well-known parable of Jewish wisdom. The coins help people balance their approach to life so that they can focus on achieving their goals in a positive, satisfying, yet humble way.

The Grade Of A Coin Is Everything
Hobbies: Coin Collecting

Coins Minted In Gold, Silver And Platinum As Investments In Metal
Coin collecting goes back over many centuries. It is man's inborn nature to collect something. And coins are one of the most popular collectable objects. The collection of coins, whether by professionals or amateurs, is called Numismatics. This article is a list with the most popular coins made from precious metals. People always collect coins, especially ones which are minted from precious metals like gold, silver and in later years from platinum. The early technology of coin-making was very primitive for many centuries. And many sorts of coins had very varied shapes.

Fantasy Site Predicts Super Bowl Coin Toss; Announces Unique Super Bowl Contest
Fans of Super Bowl contests have a beauty to play this year with great prizes and a no-fee entry with the ProperBowl.com Challenge. The competition puts fantasy football gurus to the task of predicting events in the big game from everything from the Super Bowl coin toss -- the NFC has won 10 in a row -- to the final margin of victory. Visit ProperBowl.com's for the Super Bowl of Super Bowl contests and a chance to win $2,500 in prizes including huge Plasma TVs and other football prizes like replica jerseys.

Buying Gold Coin
There are various reasons why a person would choose to start buying gold coins. One reason is they see them as a good investment whilst another person may choose to buy them because they see the way gold actually increases in value. Even today you will find that there is an extremely high demand for people who collect coins to buy those that are rare.

Old Coin Value - What's Important
Thank you for being interested in our work. We hope to be of service with the following guidelines. Everything you have as probably some sort of value attached to it. Sometimes this value is founded on how you feel about a certain item, while other items are given values assigned by others. The same applies to old coins and other coins in you collection. While professional coin dealers or expert coin collectors will know the old coin value for various coins, we may have no idea about this. This is the main reason why you should acquire as much knowledge as you can about evaluating old coin value and what their price is. The knowledge you will gain is priceless. You will be able to get a ruff idea about what you can expect to get from the...

Challenge Coins - A Special Type of Coins
For your convenience we have published this article in order to let you know of everything related to the Challenge Coins. Enjoy ?

Motorcycle Traders Like Stamps Or Coins
Motorcycles are in some ways like stamps or coins. Some people get very hooked on the beauty and style of the motorcycle and want to collect them. Some motorcycle collectors will base their collection around a particular brand like Harley Davidson. Their goal will be to collect as many different models and years of motorcycles, especially the very early models or signature models. Signature models can be ones that were prominently featured in a movie or ones that are owned by famous celebrities.

Universal Coin & Bullion’s President Mike Fuljenz Receives Service Award
Bishop Guillory awards Mike Fuljenz, the president of Universal Coin & Bullion with the Saint Thomas Aquinas Award. The award was for his gift of time, talent and treasure for the betterment of the Monsignor Kelly Catholic High School in Beaumont, Texas.

Flip a Coin - Quantum Style
Flip a coin. Think about that clich? statement, but one which actually carries a lot of meaning behind it. Before you decide to do this, there is neurological activity in your brain preceding the event. There are conscious and unconscious processes about how to hold the coin, how much pressure to use, how fast, that all take place in milliseconds. And don't overlook the nanosecond timing that exists on the microscopic scale of your physiology.

New $1 Coins Presented At Ash Lawn-Highland
James Monroe Presidential $1 Coins Head into Circulation Nationwide on Valentines Day

Maintaining Coin-Op Car Wash Vacuums
Maintaining your equipment at a coin-op car wash is important. We are working with heat and high-pressure and water.