Ebay is a wunnerful, wunnerful thing
Before Ebay, I don't know how people shopped for strange collectibles like Wacky Packages or View Master picture reels. There were probably fan-based newsletters that circulated among a select group, or the occasional booth at an antique show or flea market.
Coins and stamps are a different matter, with long-established dealers, monthly or even weekly hobby publications, reference books that often include advertising (especially for the publisher of, or contributors to, the reference books), and frequent auctions. Medals and tokens were a bit dicier, but even in Estes Park, you have always pretty much been within 50 miles of a shop that handled some of this material, or could put you in touch with other dealers who did.
This is the reverse of the Medallic Arts Company silver statehood medal for Hawaii, which entered the union in 1959. It is big, over 4 ounces sterling, and comes in two varieties (the medal was also produced in greater numbers in bronze, also in two varieties but not worth your time, and in very small numbers in gold, which are now crazy expensive, and rarely listed on Ebay, although, if you search right now, meaning right now today, you will find two examples listed, which is almost unheard of (given that only 50 to at most 100 were ever made, the production numbers are a bit sketchy). Sadly, the asking prices indicate these are just "brag listings", intended to show off and rub other collectors' noses in the fact that they own two, not to actually sell).
The myth or legend behind silver medals (this one in particular, because it is more rare and thus more valuable, but it would apply to any silver medal a dealer is attempting to sell you) made prior to the big silver boom of 1979-1980 is that bunches of them were thrown into the melting pot when silver breeched $50 per ounce or whatever. For those who don't collect, or who weren't around in 1979 and 1980 (when supposedly people's silverware, jewelry (including watches), and pre-1965 quarters and dimes were thrown into the same melting pot), if any of this were true, it would mean that something rare from the outset is even now more rare, and thus worthy of commanding even more inflated prices.
The value of most 90% "junk" silver, 92% sterling, and 99% or higher purity silver medals or rounds/bars is calculated (by dealers) at "melt value", meaning how much pure silver escapes (or would escape, if any of this was actually ever melted) the melting pot (by weight), multiplied by the current spot price of silver on the open market. So, for example (although no dealer, even the good ones, will even pay you this if they are buying something only based on its silver content), if silver was currently $16.50 per ounce, and you brought in this medal, which, when melted, would render 4.25 ounces of pure silver, a legitimate, reputable dealer (who shouldn't be buying this particular medal at silver melt anyway, since it is so rare, but play along) should pay your $16.50 x 4.25 = $70 and some odd cents. If you were dumb enough (or your family was dumb enough once you die) to sell your 1959 MACO Hawaii silver statehood medal to a dealer for $70, God bless you for replenishing the moron pool that keeps coin shops open during the Ebay era.
If you are a collector, rather than a dealer, these MACO Hawaii silver medals now routinely sell on Ebay for $200 or more, and the more rare variant, where "Niihau" is misspelled, routinely sell for $250 or more (and often more, if two dumb people are bidding against each other). Again, I don't know what these are actually "worth" - Their melt value (meaning their minimum value based on silver content) is $70, so to collectors they obviously "have" to be worth at least this or more (as if collectors had access to crucibles to melt them, and a ready market based on spot price). But I will let you in on a little secret - Alaska entered the union the same year as Hawaii, and MACO made a similar size and weight medal for Alaska, in similar numbers for the silver version (although without making an error, or at least not correcting an error, so that two different varieties were out there, as is true for the Hawaii statehood medal), and the Hawaii silver statehood medals generally sell for double that of their Alaskan counterpart.
So the take home lesson is, if you want a medal that you can pick up for close to its value just as a repository of silver, buy the Alaska MACO 1959 statehood medal. If you want a medal that has some Ebay play, bid on its Hawaii twin (I've seen the Hawaii silver medals, even the non-error varieties, go for as high as $400 on Ebay, again, keep in mind that error and non-error are "worth" $70 to a legitimate dealer if you attempt to turn around and sell it immediately after acquiring it, and you will likely be offered less). But recognize that all of this is a fantasy, because I've been scarfing up these medals when they appears and are misidentified or (sadly, for the seller) listed at a "Buy It Now" price of $100 or when they are correctly listed in an auction format but just don't attract other bidders, for whatever reason, and so sell at a hammer price at or below my maximum bid (which is low, but not $70 low) since Ebay began, and there sure as heck isn't any evidence that any of these were ever thrown into any melting pot (each one of them has a different serial number stamped on the edge, which is why I can make this claim, as the largest individual holder of this particular medal, and especially the error variety, in the world), unless you mean the initial distribution in the Hawaiian one.
Coins and stamps are a different matter, with long-established dealers, monthly or even weekly hobby publications, reference books that often include advertising (especially for the publisher of, or contributors to, the reference books), and frequent auctions. Medals and tokens were a bit dicier, but even in Estes Park, you have always pretty much been within 50 miles of a shop that handled some of this material, or could put you in touch with other dealers who did.
This is the reverse of the Medallic Arts Company silver statehood medal for Hawaii, which entered the union in 1959. It is big, over 4 ounces sterling, and comes in two varieties (the medal was also produced in greater numbers in bronze, also in two varieties but not worth your time, and in very small numbers in gold, which are now crazy expensive, and rarely listed on Ebay, although, if you search right now, meaning right now today, you will find two examples listed, which is almost unheard of (given that only 50 to at most 100 were ever made, the production numbers are a bit sketchy). Sadly, the asking prices indicate these are just "brag listings", intended to show off and rub other collectors' noses in the fact that they own two, not to actually sell).
The myth or legend behind silver medals (this one in particular, because it is more rare and thus more valuable, but it would apply to any silver medal a dealer is attempting to sell you) made prior to the big silver boom of 1979-1980 is that bunches of them were thrown into the melting pot when silver breeched $50 per ounce or whatever. For those who don't collect, or who weren't around in 1979 and 1980 (when supposedly people's silverware, jewelry (including watches), and pre-1965 quarters and dimes were thrown into the same melting pot), if any of this were true, it would mean that something rare from the outset is even now more rare, and thus worthy of commanding even more inflated prices.
The value of most 90% "junk" silver, 92% sterling, and 99% or higher purity silver medals or rounds/bars is calculated (by dealers) at "melt value", meaning how much pure silver escapes (or would escape, if any of this was actually ever melted) the melting pot (by weight), multiplied by the current spot price of silver on the open market. So, for example (although no dealer, even the good ones, will even pay you this if they are buying something only based on its silver content), if silver was currently $16.50 per ounce, and you brought in this medal, which, when melted, would render 4.25 ounces of pure silver, a legitimate, reputable dealer (who shouldn't be buying this particular medal at silver melt anyway, since it is so rare, but play along) should pay your $16.50 x 4.25 = $70 and some odd cents. If you were dumb enough (or your family was dumb enough once you die) to sell your 1959 MACO Hawaii silver statehood medal to a dealer for $70, God bless you for replenishing the moron pool that keeps coin shops open during the Ebay era.
If you are a collector, rather than a dealer, these MACO Hawaii silver medals now routinely sell on Ebay for $200 or more, and the more rare variant, where "Niihau" is misspelled, routinely sell for $250 or more (and often more, if two dumb people are bidding against each other). Again, I don't know what these are actually "worth" - Their melt value (meaning their minimum value based on silver content) is $70, so to collectors they obviously "have" to be worth at least this or more (as if collectors had access to crucibles to melt them, and a ready market based on spot price). But I will let you in on a little secret - Alaska entered the union the same year as Hawaii, and MACO made a similar size and weight medal for Alaska, in similar numbers for the silver version (although without making an error, or at least not correcting an error, so that two different varieties were out there, as is true for the Hawaii statehood medal), and the Hawaii silver statehood medals generally sell for double that of their Alaskan counterpart.
So the take home lesson is, if you want a medal that you can pick up for close to its value just as a repository of silver, buy the Alaska MACO 1959 statehood medal. If you want a medal that has some Ebay play, bid on its Hawaii twin (I've seen the Hawaii silver medals, even the non-error varieties, go for as high as $400 on Ebay, again, keep in mind that error and non-error are "worth" $70 to a legitimate dealer if you attempt to turn around and sell it immediately after acquiring it, and you will likely be offered less). But recognize that all of this is a fantasy, because I've been scarfing up these medals when they appears and are misidentified or (sadly, for the seller) listed at a "Buy It Now" price of $100 or when they are correctly listed in an auction format but just don't attract other bidders, for whatever reason, and so sell at a hammer price at or below my maximum bid (which is low, but not $70 low) since Ebay began, and there sure as heck isn't any evidence that any of these were ever thrown into any melting pot (each one of them has a different serial number stamped on the edge, which is why I can make this claim, as the largest individual holder of this particular medal, and especially the error variety, in the world), unless you mean the initial distribution in the Hawaiian one.
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