Coins and Currency Weekly
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Coins and Currency Weekly
Return to the Index
June 6, 1999
Issue #19
Highlights from the event are now available on Medialink's www.NewStream.com website. A text transcript of the event is also available online, as well as closed-captioned video for the hearing impaired. NewStream is also a featured service on broadcast.com.
Other participants joining the ceremony were former Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, U.S. Treasurer Mary Ellen Withrow, Department of the Interior Bureau of Indian Affairs Assistant Secretary Kevin Gover, U.S. Mint Director Philip N. Diehl, the coin's designers, Glenna Goodacre and Thomas D. Rogers, Sr., and representatives of the Shoshone and other Native American tribes.
Through an agreement with broadcast.com, Medialink provides webcasting services for a variety of corporations and other organizations to deliver live and on-demand public relations and corporate communications events. The unveiling event was webcast live on the U.S. Mint website and marked the first webcast involving the White House that included text for the hearing impaired. An event press kit is available in the U.S. Mint website's ``press room.''
``Nearly 90 million now watch streaming video on their PCs,'' said Laurence Moskowitz, President and CEO, Medialink. ``They increasingly rely on the Internet for news, particularly during the business day. Webcasts allow clients to reach and captivate this exploding audience by providing the impact of video and audio along with real-time access to live news events.''
Authorized by the United States $1 Coin Act of 1997, the new dollar coin replaces the current Susan B. Anthony Dollar Coin, which has circulated since 1979.
Medialink is the world leader in providing video and audio production and satellite distribution service to thousands of television and radio stations and Internet sites for corporations and other organizations seeking to communicate their news to the public. The company also produces streaming video and audio news, which is distributed by broadcast.com on behalf of these clients to desktops worldwide through Medialink's strategic agreement with broadcast.com.
In addition to broadcast media services, the company also provides press release and still photography services, as well as tracking and analysis of print and broadcast news coverage to help its more than 1,600 clients understand how they are perceived in the media, including the Internet, and to gauge the effectiveness of their public relations efforts.
Medialink, founded in 1986, is headquartered in New York and maintains offices in Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, San Francisco, Norwalk, CT and Portsmouth, NH; its international division based in London; and a network of affiliates in more than 18 countries in Europe, Asia, the Pacific Rim and Latin America. Offices can be contacted via the Internet at www.medialink.com.
NEW YORK, June 3 /PRNewswire/ -- The U.S. Mint today announced a three-year agreement with The Jim Henson Company in which Kermit the Frog, the legendary television and film celebrity, will serve as the official ``spokesfrog'' for America's 50 State Quarters Program. Kermit the Frog will soon be starring in broadcast and print commercials for the 50 State Quarters Program.
The announcement was made by Philip N. Diehl, Director of the U.S. Mint, and Kermit the Frog himself, at New York's Muppet Townhouse, the east coast headquarters of The Jim Henson Company. The Henson organization, an established leader in family entertainment, has achieved international acclaim with its beloved Muppet characters over the last four decades.
Kermit the Frog was selected as ``spokesfrog'' to raise public awareness of the 50 State Quarters Program, a 10-year initiative (1999-2008) commemorating each of the 50 United States with a unique quarter design. In his new role, Kermit will appear in an extensive print and broadcast campaign designed to educate Americans -- of all ages -- on America's newest change.
This unprecedented program introduces new designs for the quarter's reverse side every 10 weeks over the next 10 years. The quarters are introduced in the order the states entered the Union. The idea for this program came from American coin collectors and was strongly endorsed by the American public through extensive market research conducted by the Department of Treasury.
Presenting a different quarter design for each state, the program honors each state's unique history. The U.S. Mint has already issued quarters for three states: Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, with Georgia and Connecticut quarters to follow later this year.
``A key purpose of the 50 State QuartersO Program is to reclaim and retell the story of the 50 States and the history of our Nation,'' said Philip N. Diehl, Director of the U.S. Mint. ``Kermit the Frog is one of America's great storytellers.''
Kermit the Frog was born as one of several thousand tadpoles; a goggle-eyed amphibian with a singular ability to entertain. He soon parlayed those arms, those eyes and that talent into a local television show, ``Sam & Friends,'' which led to appearances on ``The Tonight Show,'' ``The Ed Sullivan Show,'' and, in 1969, to playing the key role in the creation of that innovative, groundbreaking children's series, ``Sesame Street.'' In 1976, the worldwide phenomena, ``The Muppet Show,'' premiered. From television, Kermit made the leap to feature films, beginning in 1979 with ``The Muppet Movie,'' and continuing this July with his sixth motion picture -- ``Muppets From Space.''
``I'm honored to be attached to this program,'' said Kermit the Frog. ``The new 50 State Quarters(TM) Program will give kids and adults the most exciting change America has ever seen. It's also a wonderful opportunity to learn some quick, fun lessons about the history of the United States.''
The Jim Henson Company, an established leader in family entertainment for more than 40 years, is an independent multimedia production company; one of the top licensors in the industry; a leading publisher of children's books; and home to Jim Henson Television, Jim Henson Interactive and Jim Henson's Creature Shop(TM). The company is headquartered in Los Angeles with offices and production facilities in New York and London. The Jim Henson Company's website is located at http://www.henson.com.
The 50 State Quarters are manufactured at both the Philadelphia and Denver Mints, which produce all legal tender U.S. circulating coins. The quarters are then shipped to the Federal Reserve for distribution through the private banking system. The Federal Reserve orders new quarters to ensure an adequate supply to meet the needs of commerce as commercial banks demand. The Mint projects production of 500 to 800 million quarters of each state design.
Each quarter is produced for only 10 weeks, so consumers are encouraged to keep checking their pocket change regularly to collect each of the state quarters. For more information on the 50 State Quarters and how to collect them, visit the Mint's web site at http://www.USMINT.gov.
The cornerstone of the alliance is the provision of co-branded auction content from the Hobby Markets coin collecting community, Numismatists Online (http://www.Numismatists.com), to the Coin World Internet site (http://www.CoinWorld.com).
``A strong relationship between Coin World and Numismatists Online is extremely beneficial for us,'' said Hobby Markets CEO Jonathan Hubbard. ``We can now provide our leading auction services to visitors of the Coin World site, while receiving valuable expertise for our site, which facilitates our mission of creating the most comprehensive, in-depth community for coin and currency collectors.''
Coin World publisher Ann Marie Aldrich echoed Hubbard's sentiments. ``Numismatists Online is a market leader in providing quality material to collectors via the Internet. Through this alliance, we are positioned to maintain our leadership as the No. 1 information supplier to the rapidly evolving collecting marketplace.''
To launch this relationship, Numismatists Online has embarked on an advertising and direct marketing campaign, which co-brands Numismatists Online and Coin World as the foremost team in providing commerce and content to the avid collector.
About Hobby Markets Online
Founded in 1995, Hobby Markets Online -- http://www.HobbyMarkets.com -- was established by avid collector Jonathan Hubbard to act as a dealer-to-collector transaction community for the high-end collectibles market.
Today, Hobby Markets Online sells millions of dollars worth of fine and rare material. Hobby Markets niche collectibles sites include:
-- Numismatists Online -- coins and currency -- http://www.Numismatists.com
-- Philatelists Online -- stamps and postal history -- http://www.Philatelists.com
-- AuctionVine -- fine and rare wine -- http://www.AuctionVine.com
-- SportsTrade -- sports memorabilia -- http://www.SportsTrade.com
About Coin World -- Published by Amos Press
For over 40 years, Coin World has been the leading coin and currency publication in the hobby, bringing buyers and sellers together for their mutual benefit. Coin World has a proven track record in leadership of the coin collecting community. As the voice of its readership, Coin World has influenced law and tax issues affecting the coin collecting industry.
With an international circulation of over 80,000 Coin World is the most widely distributed publication devoted to the interests of coin collectors.
Silvano DiGenova, CEO of Tangible Asset Galleries commented, ``We are extremely pleased to announce our intent to acquire Las Vegas Coin Galleries. Our new Las Vegas division will primarily focus on purchasing coin collections from private collectors as well as the wholesale community, and the selling of high-grade rarities to collectors.''
According to Ken Walczy, CFO of Tangible Asset Galleries, ``Part of our long term plan as a company is to use our public status to acquire other galleries and coin businesses. This will provide us with additional key inventory for our online auction forum. The acquisition of Las Vegas Rare Coin Gallery is expected to provide Tangible Asset Galleries with an additional three to five million dollars in revenues annually.''
``We are excited to enter the online auction business. Not only is our business in fine rarities much like Butterfield & Butterfield's, which is to be acquired by Ebay.com (Nasdaq:EBAY - news) for $260 million in stock, our sales and earnings are within approximately 10% of Butterfield & Butterfield's. According to America Online's (Nasdaq:AOL - news) and Microsoft's (Nasdaq:MSFT - news) stock quotes for June 2, 1999 for Ebay.com, they have earnings of between seven and eight cents per share, and based on our 1998 audited year end financials and today's outstanding shares, our EPS would be approximately 7 1/4 cents even before we begin our online auction,'' continued Walczy.
DiGenova continued, ``In addition, we will also be adding an extremely experienced member to our management team. Rusty Goe, President of Las Vegas Rare Coin Gallery will be staying on a regional Vice President. Mr. Goe has been in the coin business for nearly twenty years and has tremendous experience in many areas of numismatics. He has purchased and sold many six figure rarities as well as assembling many spectacular collections.''
About Tangible Asset Galleries, Inc.
Tangible Asset Galleries, Inc. is a dealer in rare coins, fine art and other rare collectibles. The Company's chairman has been one of the pioneers of the industry since 1977. The Company operates in several different sectors of the art and rare coin business including: fine art retail sales, fine art wholesale, rare coins retail and rare coins wholesale. Tangible Asset Galleries is entering the Internet sector by launching an online auction forum, scheduled to begin in July 1999. Tangible Asset Galleries' auction site will be structured like and is expected to compete with other online auction forums such as Ebay.com Gregg Manning Auctions, Inc. (Nasdaq:GMAI - news), Sotheby's Holding (NYSE:BID - news), Ubid.com (Nasdaq:UBID - news), OnSale.com (Nasdaq:ONSL - news), Excite.com (Nasdaq:XCIT - news), Yahoo! Auctions (Nasdaq:YHOO - news) and Amazon.com (Nasdaq:AMZN - news). Founded in 1984, Tangible Asset Galleries has established marketing plans for each of its targeted sectors. In addition, the Company has a management team of seasoned and well-known officers. Silvano DiGenova, founder of Tangible Asset Galleries, also co-founded the Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS), one of the leading independent rare coin authentication and certification services.
Until Next Time, Alan Cohen Distribution Coins and Currency Weekly(c) (CCW) is published by Alan Cohen. It is a weekly newsletter devoted to coins and currency - Current news, viewpoints, and other collecting information. This newsletter is distributed free of charge, and available two ways. 1) On-Line on the World Wide Web. The address is: http://www.coinmall.com/ccw - All back issues are archived at the web site. 2) Direct e-mail. Send a message to: ccw@coinmall.com If you wish to unsubscribe from CCW, you need to send a message to the following address: ccw-request@ListService.net In the Body of the Message: address, just type UNSUBSCRIBE Until Next Time,Alan Cohen
Distribution Coins and Currency Weekly(c) (CCW) is published by Alan Cohen. It is a weekly newsletter devoted to coins and currency - Current news, viewpoints, and other collecting information. This newsletter is distributed free of charge, and available two ways. 1) On-Line on the World Wide Web. The address is: http://www.coinmall.com/ccw - All back issues are archived at the web site. 2) Direct e-mail. Send a message to: ccw@coinmall.com If you wish to unsubscribe from CCW, you need to send a message to the following address: ccw-request@ListService.net In the Body of the Message: address, just type UNSUBSCRIBE