KeepOnTrying! said:
When people buy things they always seek genuine items and try to avoid buying counterfeit. This may be one of the reasons for which the Chinese have been characterized, at least initially, as preferring government currency (Yuan) denominated coins compared to non-denominated coins (medals). The same logic can be extended to the official versus the non-official minted medal discussion. I suspect that most people, when presented with almost similarly designed medals, would prefer to buy the official minted medal in preference to the non-official medal.
When you buy an official minted medal you hopefully are reassured that the medal is of high quality, contains only what it is stated to contain with no aduteration, was not minted more than declared by the mint, there will be no resumption of minting after reaching the declared mintage. When you buy such official mint medals you tap into a valuation system that involves the commercial interraction among a larger group of people who prefer official mint medals compared to the possibly smaller group of people who don't mind buying private mint medals.
Unofficial (Private) Mints are less known in the population. Only enthusiasts and other people in the know will immediately recognize and accept medals from a specific mint or most private mints. Others may be swayed away by propoganda or pronouncements by those who do not know much about private mints.
I believe that judgement has to be on a case by case basis. Some people may already know a private mint's reputation; it easier for them to buy items produced by those private mints. Usually, it is the particular medal that should determine whether you buy it or not. If you like it you are likely to buy it. If you hear people talk well about the medal, that can also sway you towards buying the medal if you turn out to like it too. Finally, if you hear that the medal has already been graded and encapsulated by NGC/PCGS or any other widely recognised grading qurrantee company, then that confers additional credibilty to the authenticity of the medal.
I suspect that when people buy coins and medals they don't want to find out that they threw away their money. They may not have an immediate plan to sell the item later on but I believe they are less likely to buy a medal they have not heard good things about.
There is an increasing list of unofficial (private) mint medals that have done well in sales. It is only with time that their autheticity and craftsmanship can be validated completely. I have bought unofficial (private) mint medals before.
I think you raise good points but you fail to mention that non-official mints also are running a business that would get harmed if the trust in their products was shattered by doing something silly like minting more than they claim or by making the medal out of a metal that isn't to the purity they claim. Most large reputable non-official mints probably care very much about their reputation because their survival rests on a good reputation.
I own a few medals produced by the Shanghai New Century Mint (
http://www.shncm.com/ ). I have been in communication directly several times with one of their customer service agents. I get the sense that this mint is very reputable.
There may be some tiny, pack-up-and-go fly-by-night disreputable mints that produce a few different type of things and I can understand why someone would not easily trust that mint but I think the well established large mints have too much at stake to to something cheap that could severely hurt their business and would cost them a lot more than they could make by doing that cheap thing.
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