DICK JOHNSON ON MARKETING MEDAL HOARDS

No problem selling coins whenever a hoard of similar items are discovered. With known prices and large demand the price can remain fairly stable. Most any dealer can market coin hoards. Not so with medals. Supply and demand is the operative term, it certainly applies here.

The recent discussion in The E-Sylum of the National Medallion Plaque (the large version) made by electrolysis by Samuel H. Black in 1859 comes to mind. New York token and medal dealers Rossa and Tannenbaum discovered a hoard of these which had remained intact for over a century. At a New York City flea market they acquired the entire hoard, some twenty pieces or so. Had they publicized the fact they had that many for sale the price would have dropped dramatically.

The two dealers wisely eased these into the collectors' market. Never showing more than one at a time at shows or revealing the number they had on hand. It probably took them a decade or so to sell them all but they were able to maintain a stable price. Previous owners of the piece did not observe a drop in "current market value" to use an appraisers' term.

Medals are sold one at a time generally to topic collectors. A gradual increase in value can be expected over time but this is upset when a large supply is available with a somewhat limited demand. Collectors are very savvy and sense this. They often detect when a large supply still exists.

There is a name for this, a vocabulary word of the week: OVERHANG. When overhang exists and collectors are aware of this the price does not rise, and often drops.

I can cite many examples of this. The Ohio Sesquicentennial Medal of 1953 is one for instance. I am often asked if the Medallic Art Company would buy back any medal they made and the answer is NO. The company does not deal in past issues.

If an organization has a quantity of unsold medals they should NOT shop around. Offer it to one dealer who is the best prospect. Offer the entire quantity. Do NOT split it up, selling it to more than one dealer. Do NOT publicize in any way the quantity sold, who acquired it, or even the quantity existed at all. Allow that dealer to sell one piece at a time, not to disturbed the market value, even if it takes him a decade to do so.

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
NOTES FROM E-SYLUM READERS: OCTOBER 26, 2014 : Query: Samuel H. Black Electrotype Plate (www.coinbooks.org/esylum_v17n44a09.html)

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