The Power Cosmic - All In Color For A Quarter
I’ve been following the story of 20th Century Fox’s publicity stunt, in cahoots with The Franklin Mint, to put 40,000 altered quarters into the stream of commerce to promote the upcoming film “Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.’
When I first read about this a few days ago, it struck me as strange since defacing US currency for such a stunt is a crime. I figured they weren’t real quarters but rather commemorative coins or something like that.
Turns out that they are real quarters that the grapchics wizards at The Franklin Mint doctored up. MSNBC reports…
The U.S. Mint said
in a news release Friday …“The promotion is in no way approved, authorized, endorsed, or sponsored by
the United States Mint, nor is it in any way associated or affiliated with the United States Mint,†according to the release. The federal mint did not say whether the studio or the private Franklin Mint would face a penalty.The altered coins are quarters honoring the state of California that entered circulation in 2005. They feature George Washington on the front, as usual, but a colorized version of the character on the back. All 40,000 are slated to be in circulation throughout the country by the end of Memorial Day weekend, and about 800 were released in each state.
The coins appear to be fetching a high price on ebay, with winning bids over $100 common. I’ll just be happy if the movie is good! 
Outrageous, but not surprising. Marvel has been committing crimes against comic books for years now; why wouldn’t they break the actual law, too? (I mean, c’mon: you don’t think FOX did this without them knowing, do you?) I’m afraid this quarter will end up being the most memorable thing about this movie. To all the fanboys, I’ll bet they’ll be worth more than gold. . . .
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Jaytee,
It is hard to imagine that the folks at The Franklin Mint didn’t know this was illegal. And of course our friends at Fox knew about it. It’s nice controversy that gets people talking about the movie for the next couple of weeks, notable publicity on ebay and in news articles, etc.
In the end, they pay a relatively small fine. Quite a bit of publicity for a relatively small investment, huh?
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