Posted 10/27/2021 9:16 pm
The silver content is worth US$43.50 at current prices; this is a minimum value.
So, price is determined by supply and demand. "Supply" is, apparently, capped at 2000 (assuming they made the full allotment, and assuming not too many have since been melted down).
"Demand" is harder to quantify. I'd assume there's not too much local demand in Sweden for such an item, as it commemorates a non-Swedish dignitary's death. Unless Kari Rolfsen is a big name among Swedish numismatists, I expect the local demand to be minimal.
I'd also assume demand in China would be low to nonexistent. Your typical patriotic Chinese Communist, who would be the kind of person most likely to buy a Mao collectable, would prefer to buy Chinese-made medals, rather than foreign imports. The complete lack of Chinese language is also a negative for the Chinese audience, and the renderings of the province names on the reverse are in the old Wade-Giles romanization, which is still used in Taiwan but is politically unfashionable on the mainland these days (the politically correct Latin-alphabet Pinyin spellings for these provinces are "Jiangxi" and "Shaanxi").
The Chinese worldwide diaspora is also unlikely to find the medal appealing, as most of them are either neutral or overtly hostile to Maoism.
Low demand trumps low supply. So I wouldn't expect too much of a premium above bullion value.
So, price is determined by supply and demand. "Supply" is, apparently, capped at 2000 (assuming they made the full allotment, and assuming not too many have since been melted down).
"Demand" is harder to quantify. I'd assume there's not too much local demand in Sweden for such an item, as it commemorates a non-Swedish dignitary's death. Unless Kari Rolfsen is a big name among Swedish numismatists, I expect the local demand to be minimal.
I'd also assume demand in China would be low to nonexistent. Your typical patriotic Chinese Communist, who would be the kind of person most likely to buy a Mao collectable, would prefer to buy Chinese-made medals, rather than foreign imports. The complete lack of Chinese language is also a negative for the Chinese audience, and the renderings of the province names on the reverse are in the old Wade-Giles romanization, which is still used in Taiwan but is politically unfashionable on the mainland these days (the politically correct Latin-alphabet Pinyin spellings for these provinces are "Jiangxi" and "Shaanxi").
The Chinese worldwide diaspora is also unlikely to find the medal appealing, as most of them are either neutral or overtly hostile to Maoism.
Low demand trumps low supply. So I wouldn't expect too much of a premium above bullion value.
Don't say "infinitely" when you mean "very"; otherwise, you'll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. - C. S. Lewis
