A multichannel campaign for two colorized silver dollars honoring military, fire and law enforcement personnel in light of the Sept. 11 attacks has been a hit among coin collectors, the American Historic Society said.
AHS, a collectible-coin company in Westlake Village, CA, would not reveal sales figures, but said it has donated more than $100,000 to the United Way's September 11th Fund since the campaign began in mid-October. Based on its pledge to donate $5 per coin sold, that totals more than 20,000 coins.
Dubbed “Defenders of Freedom” and “American Heroes,” the coins debuted in mid-October in the AHS catalog and in DRTV spots. Though much of the company's sales comes from inserts in credit-card bills, the company said it was unable to get inserts included in mailings by October.
The October catalog drop went to 600,000 people and was followed by a drop to 1 million in November. Both catalogs were part of AHS's annual schedule of 10 drops.
DRTV spots ran on national cable and local broadcast affiliates. AHS, which employs Philadelphia-based DRTV agency Direct Response Media for television marketing, said it generally uses 15 national cable stations and 60 broadcast stations.
The AHS Web site features the coins on the home page. Both coins are available for $39.95.
Don Baker, vice president of direct response marketing for AHS, said he doesn't expect interest in the coins to evaporate quickly.
“I feel that in some ways, this is such an important event in American history, the relevance of this coin will last forever,” he said. “It's going to be an evergreen product.”
