Quote: montysghostThanks for that, I now know there is also one in a museum in Germany and six others across the globe. there were only 500 hundred made so I am suprised that one didn't sell?
I have a few like that one also.
Derek
I like these medals a lot, and as a collector of all manner of Germania, I've looked into trying to score this type of under-produced industrial fair medal, but I always find that the pricing is just unappealing. My theory is that this sort of item appeals to less than 1% of coin/exonumia collectors because of its subject matter, but appeals to slightly more because of its rarity. Its rarity, therefore, is the sole driving market-factor, and I'm not sure rarity alone is enough to move a lot of these medals.
For instance, the company I work for could put out a medal today, in a limited quantity of 40, and stamp Barack Obama's head on the obverse and our firm's building on the reverse. That makes it an ultra-rare item of exonumia, but I'm not sure anyone would pay more than $0.50 for it, even 100 years from now.
I had a similar issue with some German "milch-thalers", which commemorate different societies and competitions relating to milk production (the not-so-glamorous cousin of the Swiss Shooting Thaler). There's very little documentation on them, there's no real price guide, and they don't appeal to a ton of people. I bought some, but wouldn't pay an arm and a leg for them.
