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Who wouldn’t like a piece of the Silver Surfer? Maybe even to carry around in your pocketses.That must have been what 20th Century Fox and the Franklin Mint were thinking when they cooked up the “Silver Surfer Quarter”, above. Since the Zenn-La native does not appear on any US States quarters, he had to be stamped onto existing currency. But shockingly, putting an ad on legal tender is against the law!

The U.S. Mint said in a news release Friday that it learned of the promotional quarter this week and advised the studio and The Franklin Mint they were breaking the law. It is illegal to turn a coin into an advertising vehicle, and violators can face a fine.
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“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.

6 COMMENTS

  1. Cody:”While I don’t doubt that it’s true, how come I never hear about the government going after that http://www.wheresgeorge.com site?”

    No kidding!
    It was probably a calculated move to get maximum media attention. The roll-out certainly wasn’t as high profile as you’d expect with a promotion like this.
    So they may have to pay a fine that wouldn’t come close to the standard cost of all this publicity that’s been generated! :)
    Reminds me a bit of the Aqua Teen Hunger Force bomb scare a few months back.
    Except nobody’s likely to be scared by these quarters…

  2. I was hoping this would be an embossed image of the Silver Surfer, and then they’d move on to do Wyatt Wingfoot and Molecule Man quarters.

  3. The FBI raided Liberty Mint and confiscated Ron Paul Dollars, which are not and never claimed to be legal tender, but probably never even fined 20th Century Fox or the Franklin Mint…. Oh, maybe it’s because Liberty Mint is also the mint of the Royal Hawai’ian Government, and the US is p*$$!@d that Bill Clinton apologized to the Kingdom of Hawai’i’s illegal overthrow by the USA, but hey, I read comic books about Skrull invasions, what would I know, right?

  4. The FBI raided Liberty Mint and confiscated Ron Paul Dollars, which are not and never claimed to be legal tender, but probably never even fined 20th Century Fox or the Franklin Mint…. Oh, maybe it’s because Liberty Mint is also the mint of the Royal Hawai’ian Government, and the US is p*$$!@d that Bill Clinton apologized to the Kingdom of Hawai’i’s illegal overthrow by the USA, but hey, I read comic books about Skrull invasions, what would I know, right?

  5. The FBI raided Liberty Mint and confiscated Ron Paul Dollars, which are not and never claimed to be legal tender, but probably never even fined 20th Century Fox or the Franklin Mint…. Oh, maybe it’s because Liberty Mint is also the mint of the Royal Hawai’ian Government, and the US is p*$$!@d that Bill Clinton apologized to the Kingdom of Hawai’i’s illegal overthrow by the USA, but hey, I read comic books about Skrull invasions, what would I know, right?

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