Limits Unlimited

As the purchasing power of their money is whittled away by inflation, many people are building personal stockpiles of material objects that seem likely to hold their value better than mere cash. In an effort to capitalize on this desire to acquire, a large number of firms are beginning to make or market "limited edition" products: medals, plates, statuettes, miniature silver "ingots." In theory, an artificial scarcity of such products enhances their value.

The Franklin Mint, near Media, Pa., started the big market for limited editions (TIME, July 12, 1971), and it has done so well that last year its shares were one of the fastest rising of all on the American Stock Exchange. In eight years, Franklin has advertised its way into the homes of 500,000 subscribers, most of whom have bought one or more series of silver medals. Among its new editions this year are the Presidential Journey to China Eyewitness Medal ($15) and the Signers of the Declaration of Independence ($9.50). Franklin officers expect sales to rise from $59 million last year to $80 million this year. "People like to have something exclusive," says Chairman and Founder Joseph Segel. "Uniqueness and rarity are attractive to human nature."

Some 40 other firms have jumped into a market that now amounts to several hundred million dollars annually. Kenton Corp. began its Georg Jensen porcelain series by offering plates painted with an Andrew Wyeth winter scene. A limited edition of 12,500 plates cost $50 each; a "super-limited" edition of 275 numbered and signed pieces went for $350 each. Says Ralph Destino, president of Kenton's wholesale division: "I can sell a nice dinner plate for $5, but if I take off the rose pattern and put on a Wyeth painting, I can sell it for $50." A Benrus Corp. division has produced a series of 500 silver statuettes of Mickey Mouse and Pluto linked together with a chain. Price: $300.

Many of the newcomers to the market are subcontracting the manufacture of the medals and plates. Danbury Mint, for example, commissioned the Medal-lie Art Co. to produce a $48 silver campaign medal with the profile of Richard Nixon on one side and George McGovern on the other (voters undecided between the two would then presumably be able to flip a coin). To raise funds for the National Audubon Society, the Franklin Mint made silver plates decorated with etchings of birds. The mint recently started a series of presidential plates for the White House Historical Association. Medals produced by Franklin last year earned the United Nations $400,000.

Just how much the collectors of such objects stand to profit is open to question. For its "limited edition" of 51,000 sets of silver presidential medals, the Wittnauer Precious Metals Guild advertises that "525 Grains of Solid Sterling Silver in every medallion puts you well on your way to amassing a private Treasury of this precious metal." The first medal sells for $1, and the rest in the series cost $10 each. But 525 grains of silver are worth only about $2 in the wholesale market. The Silver Coalition Ltd. offers a series of out-of-print U.S. currency struck on a small silver ingot. The first ingot of the series, issued in a limited edition of 10,000, contains 20 ounces of silver and sells for $200. The real wholesale market worth of 20 ounces of silver is about $36. Typically, the value of the silver in the medals and ingots is one-fourth or less of the price that the limited-edition customer pays.

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