February 23, 2009: "America’s First"

Author:
D. Wnuck

Concept:
Before we get to the concept, we need to set the stage. And in this case, the stage is our belief that when offering a $335,000 coin, you should probably cool it on the jokes for a little while and instead say something important or meaningful about it.

So we figured we’d note that this coin was the very first issue struck in the American colonies. Which makes it literally our first coin, and thus a very significant piece of history. An example of which graces only a small handful of world-class collections and museum holdings the world over (but one which can be yours if you call our 800 number).

Captions that didn’t make the cut:
Before we opted for the serious approach, we tested some alternative concepts, including: "NE anyone?", which I thought was catchy, but frivolous.

Then there was the extremely clever one suggested by one of our customers: "Great coin. Lousy compass."

I love that one, but after testing it on a few people the consensus was that only about half the people understood it. And being too hip for the room is probably not the best way to market a $335,000 item. So we decided the serious approach was best in this case.