Danbury Mint

The Danbury Mint, is a division of MBI, Inc. that markets a variety of collectibles. Danbury Mint historically marketed high quality medals and ingots produced by others exclusively for them. The company also sold numerous other collectible offering including plates, bells, sculptures, etc. Danbury Mint is well known for their 1:24 scale die-cast vehicles, including a now discontinued James Bond's DB5.^[1]

Their licenses include: Boyds, Coca-Cola, John Deere, Dept 56, Dr. Seuss, General Motors, Goebel, King Features, Looney Tunes, Major League Baseball, Mars, Inc., NFL, Gary Patterson, Peanuts, Pillsbury, Elvis Presley, Red Hat Society, The Walt Disney Company and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation.^[2]

History

The Danbury Mint was founded in Westport, Connecticut by Ralph Glendinning and Ted Stanley in 1969, as a subsidiary of Glendinning Companies. Their first product was a series of medals commemorating the Apollo 11 moon landing.^[3]

The Danbury Mint has since gone on to capture the legacy of landmark events, products and people though collectible figurines, collector's plates, dolls, and die-cast cars. Those legacies include the inauguration of President Barack Obama, Princess Diana, Shirley Temple, corvettes, Hummel figurines, and Christmas gold ornaments.

Danbury's first sister division was formed in 1970 under the name Postal Commemorative Society, recently changed to PCS Stamps & Coins. In 1973, both divisions were incorporated as MBI. In 1975 Easton Press was formed as MBI's third division, and MBI was spun off from Glendinning Companies as a separate company.^[3]

According to former employees, the MBI name was created by reversing the letters in IBM and later applying a meaning to each letter. Every product the company produced should have "Meaning," "Beauty," & "Integrity."^{[citation needed]}

See also

• Franklin Mint, a similar company
• National Collector's Mint

External links

• Danbury Mint homepage
• Danbury Mint at Diecast Zone

References

1. ^ Olins, Jay (December 31, 2001). "Danbury Mint 1:24 1964 Aston Martin DB5 Saloon - James Bond, 007 Version (Discontinued)". DieCast.org. http://www.diecast.org/diecast98/html/asp/list_reviews/xq/ASP/id.921/qx/reviewpix.htm. 
2. ^ "The Danbury Mint: About Us". 2008. http://www.danburymint.com/CMSPage.aspx?UrlKey=AboutUs. 
3. ^ ^{a b} "Our History". MBI Inc.. http://www.mbi-inc.com/.