About the artist:

The Franklin Mint was a private mint founded by Joseph Segel in 1964 in Wawa, Pennsylvania. The brand name is currently owned by Sequential Brands Group headquartered in New York City, New York. The Franklin Mint sells coins, medals, jewelry, die-cast vehicles, dolls, sculpture and other collectibles. For five decades The Franklin Mint produced and mass marketed "collectibles". Its product line began with manufacturing and marketing privately minted gold and silver commemorative rounds and medallions. In the 1970s and 1980s, Franklin Mint expanded operations to legal-tender coins, producing a combination of bullion and non-bullion proof and uncirculated coin sets of both small and large denominations for a number of countries, particularly Panama and various island states. One of its best numismatic sellers was the "Coin Sets of all Nations" series which included stamps and post marks of the respective nation on each set. Besides coins, other offerings included dolls, plates, knives, LP record sets and die-cast vehicles. Often emphasized in these media were influential historical figures or famous actors. Wildlife scenes were also a common feature. Many of these items were sold through magazine and television advertisement over the years. One of the LP sets was the 100 Greatest Recordings Of All Time, a collection of classical recordings selected by a panel of performers and conductors and pressed on translucent 180 gram deep red vinyl and packaged two LPs to an each album. Each LP was set into a plastic carrier that touched only the center spindle hole and the rim. There were two rereleases of this set. The second used ordinary paper sleeves inside a foldout compartment to house the LPs. The third used a side-open box and paper sleeves. In all three sets the vinyl quality was the same. Vehicles: In 1983, after Warner Communications had purchased the Franklin Mint, the company entered the diecast vehicle market, starting with the 1935 Mercedes Benz 500K Roadster. Usually the cars were labeled as Franklin Mint Precision Models. In the following years, Franklin Mint produced more than 600 different issues of motorcycles, trucks and tractors besides automobiles. Additionally the Franklin Mint began manufacturing diecast aircraft. The Franklin Mint produced a large number of World War II 1:48 scale planes including the B-17 Flying Fortress, PBY Catalina, P-51 Mustang, and FW190.