Upon reading the blog “Coin Thoughts #86 by SUN” I remembered a medal I had stashed away in my collection.� It was unwanted thing receiving no bids at the local club auction so I offered the seller what I had in my wallet at the time which I believe amounted to all of three dollars.� The medal was obviously tainted by a man who resigned as president at a time when I was just a small boy playing with marbles and dreaming of being an astronaut someday.� So from that perspective I cannot weigh in on the right or wrong of the time I just knew that there had been a change and now Ford was our president.� The only personal experience I can speak to in regards to this former president is that I lived not far from his compound at the end of Orange County in San Clemente for a few years and I have eaten at the El Adobe in San Juan Capistrano that apparently he frequented when in town.�

Anyway, like the medal inauguration medal this too is a product of the Franklin Mint.� The cost of ownership when issued was a $25 minimum contribution, or at least that is what I find noted in the Guidebook of Franklin Mint Issues published by Krause in 1974.� The medal was issued in 1972 as the official campaign medal for the Republican National Committee.� The portrait was sculpted by Gilroy Roberts and you can see his initial just below the bust on the obverse.� The reverse just has the letters FM in a stylized format for Franklin Mint with the copyright for the RNC elephant logo.� The Krause Publication list this particular piece as API 1 /J39/PL, which sounds rather complicated and I am not sure if this nomenclature ever caught on.� API stands for American Political Issues, not that it was about the issues per se but it was an edition.� 1 of course being the first in the listing though there are two 1s. J is for Franklin Bronze, not sure what that composite specifically is though and by the way in case you are wondering the other API 1 is D for silver.� 39 is the number of millimeters in diameter the piece is, pretty useful information if you ask me.� Lastly PL is as you would probably guess is proof-like.� The total minted is listed as 108,044 so using the minimum twenty five dollar contribution this issue should have raised at least $2,701,100.00 less the cost Franklin Mint charged Republican National Committee.

At the time this guidebook was issued the piece was listed as a value of $10.00 so figuring with inflation I guess I got a pretty good deal a few years back.� Lastly to follow-up on my personal experiences the food and the service at the El Adobe was excellent the last time I had it and I recently read in a builders publication that the last of Nixon’s compound in San Clemente had been developed into expensive tract homes.