Medal US (Hawaii) Royal Hawaiian Mint Products

The Royal Hawaiian Mint [press for web site] is a private mint on the Islands of Hawaii. They produce many nice products in silver and gold, and anyone who loves Hawaii will be drawn to their products and the Island life they depict.

Evaluating coins, medals, and tokens from modern private mints involves learning about the secondary market. Buying products directly from the mint guarantees authenticity and quality, but usually results in spending twice as much as necessary to buy the same products on the secondary market. Likewise, if you want to sell products to coin dealers and other wholesalers, expect to get about one-half of the secondary market price.

For example, if you can buy a mint product for $100 US dollars, expect:

- you can buy the same thing on eBay for $50
- you can sell it for $25 to a coin dealer

There are also strong variations in price that depend on external features. Sometimes mints artificially limit production and this tends to raise the price. Also, mint products can be accompanied by fancy packaging and documents, and these can, but hardly ever do, affect the price.

In summary, check eBay for the product you are interested in. When you find one that has sold on eBay, use the sale price as a good estimate of value. Remember, only eBay auctions that have actually sold are indicators of value; auctions that have not sold mean nothing.

For the one ounce King Kamehameha round of 1993, the value is about $25.
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