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Joseph M. Segel conceived of the idea for the Franklin Mint in 1964 and sold commemorative coins out of his Yeadon garage. The business ballooned and in 1985 it was sold to current owners Stewart and Lynda Rae Resnick of California.
The Resnicks introduced jewelry and limited-edition books to the inventory of collectible cars, dolls, Faberge eggs, chess sets, thimbles and other works that idolized popular culture symbols likeJacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Princess Diana, Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn Monroe, Elvis, Harley-Davidson motorcycles and John Deere tractors.
Despite popularity and revenues in the millions, the business has been faltering for some time. Layoffs have been announced three times since 1999 and the facility, that once employed 1,500 full-time workers, as of Tuesday employed only 300.
"It’s been 50 there, 100 there every year or so it seems," said Delaware County Council Chairman John McFadden. "That collectible market seemed to dry and then it virtually dried up."
McFadden said the job losses could be as high as 300 - the number the company gave as its total workforce.
Segel, an advertising executive, founded the company to capitalize on the popular hobby of coin-collecting when the U.S. Mint discontinued selling silver dollars to the public.
Operating out of a Yeadon garage, the business -- called General Numismatics Corp. -- grew. In 1966, the company’s first full year of business, Segel operated at a loss but with sales of $1.5 million.
The following year, it registered a profit. In 1970, Segel moved it to the 400,000-square-foot, $10 million facility off U.S. Route 1 in Franklin Center, Middletown.
That year, Segel described the relation of his company to the county as he was honored as a "distinguished citizen" at a Delaware County Board of Realtors dinner.
"The Franklin Mint," he said, "is a symbol of growth and vitality for Delaware County."
In 1973, the company estimated sales of $110 million. A year later, Segel left, saying he no longer enjoyed the work.
In 1980, the Franklin Mint was sold to Warner Communications, which sold it to Rolle Inc. in March 1985. Rolle Inc. is owned by the Resnicks.
In 1988, the mint -- with 1,500 county employees and another 3,000 worldwide -- was named "Company of the Year" by the Delaware County Chamber of Commerce.
Criticism and controversy often accompany success and the Franklin Mint had its share of both.
Apollo astronauts carried mint coins on their moon mission and returned them to the Delaware County facility, where they
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were minted into thousands of mini-coins and sold to customers. Officials at NASA weren’t pleased with the deal, but mint officials said they thought the government knew about it.
During that era, the mint contracted with the White House Historical Society to distribute commemorative medals in exchange for royalties. Critics claimed misuse of the White House and pointed to Segel’s hefty $113,000 contribution to President Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign.
Segel said there was no connection between the two and said the coins raised more than $1 million for White House renovations.
Even the product themselves were subject to scrutiny.
Some claimed the use of the "limited edition" moniker on the coin series misled some to think the item increased in value over time. The company responded that Franklin Mint products were "not sold as investments."
Other controversies were more recent.
In 1998, Tiger Woods won a "substantial" settlement after suing the Franklin Mint for using his name and likeness without his authorization. The mint printed and sold about 2,000 coins at $37.50 each, commemorating Woods’ victory at the Masters tournament.
The mint itself won a suit against the estate of Princess Diana, who had sued the company for a similar claim. The estate charged that the mint was falsely advertising that proceeds from Diana collectibles were being given to her memorial charity fund and that her name and image were incorrectly construed as estate endorsements.
In December 1999, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Los Angeles upheld a lower court’s rejection of the estate’s claim. The mint claimed they were paying the charities and argued that Diana never challenged use of her name prior to her death.
U.S. District Judge Florence-Marie Cooper then ordered the Diana estate to reimburse the mint $2.3 million in legal fees.
But the company’s finances were far from steadily profitable.
In 1990, the company reported a $44 million net loss with sales of $566.7 million. The following year, the mint had $24.4 million in income on $536.5 million in revenues.
Three years later, a few mint retail stores were opened on a pilot basis. In 1994, a dozen more were operational with plans for 100 by the end of 1995.
However, by the middle of that year, the mint was planning 10 percent layoffs of its 1,600 workforce due to slower-than-expected growth. The numbers of staff were deemed to be too high for that year’s anticipated financial figures.
In 1999, the mint launched another downsizing campaign. This time, the move was expected to produce capital for its online business. At that time, manufacturing was discontinued at the Middletown site.
What the Baltimore Pike facility did house was corporate offices, marketing, product development, sales, customer service, finance, human resources and advertising functions. Artists did some work onsite but also from their own locations.
Over the last 20 years, much of the work has been outsourced to companies in India, China and Malaysia.
Company officials said the mint couldn’t survive as it was.
"We tried to make the current business model work," Lucker said yesterday. "The current business model wasn’t working."
He declined to state how much in revenue the company garnered last year. In 1997, the mint reported $800 million in revenues.
Because of that, he said the company would be creating a smaller business with a heavy focus on diecast, precision model cars, airplanes and the Harley Davidson line through the Internet and wholesale channels.
Other items will be considered on an individual basis, as will other parts of the business from the stores to the catalogue to the museum.
"We haven’t made any decisions about the retail stores," Lucker said. "The retail stores won’t be impacted."
All orders made through the catalogue will be honored and Lucker explained that any item the mint is selling is available.
He said another 40 employees at the Aston fulfillment center are also going through transitions, with some of the jobs going to be transferred.
It was unknown what will happen to the museum.
"Everyone right there now is crying," a Bethel resident who works in the mint’s collections department said. But, she added, the move wasn’t a total surprise.
"Every year before Christmas, it’s always the way it was," she said. "Here comes the layoffs."
The woman, who requested anonymity, said unemployment was a major reason people’s accounts were winding up in her department.
"It used to be a heart attack, or someone in the family died," she said. "Now, it’s layoffs, layoffs, layoffs. It’s everywhere across the United States."
She said Tuesday night the Resnicks flew in from California and met with mint managers, who shared the news with the staff yesterday morning.
"I wasn’t surprised because it’s happening all around me," she said. "I kind of had a gut instinct that it was gone."
But some officials say finding a replacement for the mint might not be the challenge it seems.
County Council Chairman McFadden said 100,000 square feet of the facility is already leased to four companies -- three of them are looking to expand.
And, he added, another Delaware County-based service provider that does a work with the Philadelphia International Airport is eyeing the remaining 300,000 square feet.
"They seemed very positive that this was their number one site," McFadden said, declining to name the business. "This has a win-win benefit."
No doubt, he said, the mint carries with it a homegrown prestige. McFadden himself remembers watching the employees stamp coins and bills for foreign countries as part of a grade-school visit.
The mint has not done that for a while, he said.
"It certainly has been a mainstay in the county for many, many years," he said.
But, he added, "The economy changed and the business changed. Their marketplace contracted."
