When Coinages Clash!, or: This Quarter, This Surfer

Brian Doherty | May 30, 2007

The Franklin Mint (not, despite rumors, named after Reed and Sue Richards' firstborn son) tries to inject 40,000 specially altered actual U.S. quarters into the economy with the obverse (formerly the special California state quarter) turned into an image of the Silver Surfer as a promotion for the forthcoming Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer flick.

Alas, the U.S. Mint, reacting in the usual blind rage and anger humans aim at that which they don't understand, says them nay, although the deed is already done. The AP story doesn't specify what penalty the guilty parties may face, if any. Franklin Mint spokesperson says they are very mindful of the glories of legal tender laws and intended merely to "enhance" the coins with Norrin Radd's sleek alien form.

Comments

Bubba Zanetti|5.30.07 @ 5:41PM|#

Clearly, another diabolical scheme by Mephisto to keep the denizens of Earth opposed to the Surfer.

|5.30.07 @ 5:56PM|#

I'm saving my money for the Franklin Mint's Infinity Gems.

|5.30.07 @ 5:56PM|#

selling for up to $175 on ebay

|5.30.07 @ 5:58PM|#

That coin looks awful, even for the Franklin Mint's standards.

|5.30.07 @ 6:00PM|#

Money with advertising on it is like turducken.

|5.30.07 @ 6:02PM|#

I'm saving my money for the Franklin Mint's Infinity Gems.,/i>
NO! The Gauntlet, it will be MINE!

|5.30.07 @ 6:06PM|#

Maybe the need to marshall forces to deal with the Franklin Mint situation is the reason why the government asked for an extension of time beyond the standard 60 days to respond to the Liberty Dollar's lawsuit. The Feds will now be explaining the basis of their claim that it is illegl to use Liberty Dollars in voluntary commerce sometime around mid-June. Coincidentally enough, this is when the Rise of the Silver Surfer hits theatres, nationwide.

Just when Norrin Radd will be rebelling against Galactus, so will our Silver Surfin' Bernard von Nothaus be mixing it up with the world-devouring Federal Government in a court case. Can Our Guy get his hands on the Ultimate Nullifier before it is too late?

D.A. Ridgely|5.30.07 @ 6:08PM|#

So, does that make him the Nickel-clad Copper Surfer?

|5.30.07 @ 6:23PM|#

That sounded cool. But those coins suck bad.

|5.30.07 @ 6:25PM|#

Franklin Mint produces a lot of hideous crap, but I will defend to the death its right to produce a lot of hideous crap.

|5.30.07 @ 6:31PM|#

But would Harvey Dent scratch up the Surfer side?

|5.30.07 @ 6:38PM|#

With Franklin Mint coins, BOTH sides are the bad side.

|5.30.07 @ 6:44PM|#

We could solve this by just making the Silver Surfer a state.

|5.30.07 @ 6:49PM|#

Lamar: Tasty and hard to prepare?

highnumber|5.30.07 @ 7:18PM|#

jb,

How well do you know Lamar?

highnumber|5.30.07 @ 7:20PM|#

VikingMoose: Gamey and easy to trick.

|5.30.07 @ 7:25PM|#

Excelsior!

highnumber|5.30.07 @ 7:31PM|#

All right, I'll admit - I've never tried to fool VM, but he seems very trusting. Moose, however, I have been told, is very gamey.

|5.30.07 @ 8:10PM|#

So I don't get it. Did they buy a bunch of quarters and then alter them or did they mint their own quarters? I could see why the latter would be a problem.

|5.30.07 @ 8:21PM|#

The movie looks craptacular too. I mean it couldn't be worse than the first. Right?

|5.30.07 @ 8:26PM|#

The U.S. mint produced the quarters. The Franklin mint purchased them and modified them.

This isn't counterfeiting. At most it is defacement of currency.

|5.30.07 @ 9:32PM|#

I prefer to think of it as "re-facing", not defacing.

|5.30.07 @ 10:09PM|#

Do the quarters at least each contain a tiny portion of the power cosmic?

|5.30.07 @ 10:47PM|#

Do the quarters at least each contain a tiny portion of the power cosmic?

That might explain why the Federal Government is so eager to once again prove itself to be the Ultimate Nullifier.

|5.30.07 @ 10:49PM|#

It ain't easy bein' white. It ain't easy bein' brown. All this pressure to be bright. I've got children all over town

|5.30.07 @ 11:25PM|#

I prefer to think of it as "re-facing", not defacing.

Shit-facing, perhaps?

Tom Tancredo|5.30.07 @ 11:32PM|#

What's all this about illegal alien coins?

|5.31.07 @ 4:19AM|#

"It ain't easy bein' white. It ain't easy bein' brown. All this pressure to be bright. I've got children all over town"

Thank you for that obscure reference from "Arrested Development." I think I will go buy DvDs of that show with some silver surfer quarters.

|5.31.07 @ 6:28AM|#

BAH! Doom's splendid visage WOULD have adorned the proud currency of Latveria! That is, if the damned Mr. Fantastic had not scared it beyond all recognition!

CURSE YOU RICHARDS!!!

Silver Surfer|5.31.07 @ 7:26AM|#

Just for this, I'm going to deface all my Star Trek commemorative plates with pictures of Susan B. Anthony.

|5.31.07 @ 10:54AM|#

Rest assured, the US Government will be quick to find and... uh... find and appre...hend.. the culp(hic)... the Culpri(hic)... the Perpetrators behind this defacement of (hic) US Currency, and bring them to justice...

Right after another vodka tonic.

|5.31.07 @ 11:03AM|#

At some point, somebody looked at a turkey stuffed with a chicken and said, "I can't imagine that being enough meat." The first thought was to laminate the turkey with Steak-umm sheets. That was nixed due to the lack of a meat-based resin to adhere the strips of meat to the meat. Lathering the birds in pate was deemed unAmerican. A shell-like covering of bologna patches was also ruled out over a lebanon-bologna vs. regular bologna spat, and all luncheon meat coverings were ruled out at that time. Somebody came up with the idea of stuffing more meat inside the bird stuffed bird. Everybody agreed that the early attempts to stuff a live chinchilla into the chicken-stuffed turkey was good, but lead to no catchy name (turchinchickie was ruled out). The focus quickly turned to fowl, and duck was the most fattening bird around. Still, those early attempts at stuffing a turkey with a mongoose stuffed with a bat were some of the best eatin' I recall.

|5.31.07 @ 12:43PM|#

Lamar: OK, your explanation beats anything I could come up with.

I have, however, eaten turducken. It was good.

|5.31.07 @ 12:46PM|#

A coin to Herald the Herald of Galactus?

|5.31.07 @ 12:50PM|#

We could solve this by just making the Silver Surfer a state.

Do you think the Iraqis would go for it?

Franklin Harris|5.31.07 @ 1:44PM|#

Do you think the Iraqis would go for it?

If they know what's good for them.

Jim Murphy|5.31.07 @ 2:24PM|#

What amuses me about this is that while the scolds at the US Mint are getting their starched BVDs in a wad about the Silver Surfer on the back of coins, across town the US Postal Service is throwing up mailboxes that look like R2D2 and throwing every cartoon character this side of "Kathy" and "Nancy and Sluggo" on their stamps....if they'd been approached about it they probably would have let their letter carriers dress up like the Silver Surfer for enough cay-sh

Jim Murphy|5.31.07 @ 2:31PM|#

This isn't counterfeiting. At most it is defacement of currency.

When I was a kid I had an uncle that was always giving me these pennies with things engraved on them--I got one with Kennedy's mug engraved next to Abe, one with the Masonic logo engraved on it, and damn near everything else engraved on it. Here's a link to what I'm talking about:

http://thefuntimesguide.com/images/blogs/lincoln_kennedy_penny_top.jpg

So how come its OK to engrave the Masonic logo on a penny and not the Silver Surfer on a quarter when the Surfer is (in theory at least) so much cooler?

|5.31.07 @ 3:02PM|#

U.S. vs Franklin - The battle of the mints. It's clobber'n time. No matter who loses, we all win.