I’m not all that surprised to learn about the U.S. Mint’s ruling late last week against 20th Century Fox and The Franklin Mint for issuing some 40,000 quarters promoting next month’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, with the Sentinel of the Spaceways featured rather than the head of America’s first president.
From personal experience, mentioning the U.S. Olympics team in some specific but just as benign ways — kinda like the Surfer quarter — elicits the same kind of response. Experiencing that Olympic problem some two decades ago, I was surprised nobody from the Franklin Mint or Marvel checked out the legality of it all, although the AP story prominently mentions the Surfer quarter, while commemorative, is being given away, not sold.
Perhaps, the next “commemorative” coins should feature profiles of Jack Kirby or Steve Ditko, two men who had more to do with Marvel’s present success, especially at the box office, arguably, than anybody else. Just a thought…
May 29th, 2007 at 1:36 pm
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Just a comment, but Marvel had nothing to do with this (it’s a Fox and Franklin mint promotion), so why would anyone at Marvel bother to check legality?