Release: JULY 4, 2025
Those lucky enough to have attended sleepover summer camps often experienced a curious phenomenon. I’ll call it sporadic absence anxiety. That happens when you arrive, get settled into your cabin and begin assessing what you have and don’t have. What you may have forgotten or just didn’t have was usually available at the camp store. That’s where campers could get into notable trouble racking up debt by simply signing for things....
I’m sure things have changed quite a bit since I went to camp. We weren’t allowed any outside food, candy, radios or other forms of contraband in our bunks. Counselors wisely didn’t want any ants, critters or distractions. Camps understandably also wanted us to focus more on arts and crafts or nature. Naturally, some of us smuggled in a few things. I recall having rolls of root beer life savers. Other kids had cool gadgets, mini fans or candy bars. During “quiet time,” we would stealthily trade between us without the counselor’s notice. (They knew.)
Comic books were especially coveted summer camp diversions – far more so than when not at camp. At home, we just walked to the corner store and bought them. At camp, they were unavailable prized possessions. Evidently, reading the exploits of Superman, Batman, Spiderman and other super heroes in the wilderness had so much more meaning, intrigue and value.
Of course, for true value, comic book aficionados know you have to dial the clock back a few decades to when the original super hero editions were issued. In the 1930s, it’s almost certain summer camps didn’t allow comic books. Surely, any that were snuck in would end up being in less than pristine condition by the time camp was over.
In 1938, comics taught us that a character named Superman traveled from the planet Krypton to land on earth, coincidentally in America. Once here, he did endless good deeds, thwarted criminals and saved people in distress. In that summer month of June, some 87 years ago, Superman’s exploits were first recounted in the publication Action Comics. Kids everywhere were engrossed.
That same year, Detective Comics released an issue unveiling the feats of a man who had seen his parents murdered. That horrific incident committed him to superior physical training and fighting evil. After a bat entered his bedroom, he resolved to fight crime under the identity of Batman. Again, kids were captivated. Spiderman followed much later in 1962.
In 1938, 200,000 Superman Action comics were printed. As I said, in the following years, many of those were surely taken and lost by kids at summer camps. Far more disappeared as mothers cleaned out kid’s rooms. Today, it’s believed barely 100 of the comics survive. Of those, only 78 have been certified. In 2024, one in pristine condition sold for $6 million. Others surely wait to be found stashed in attics and closets.
This month, the US Mint is getting onboard the superhero bandwagon with silver and gold medals saluting Superman. In collaboration with Warner Brothers, the medals are the first in what will be an ongoing series honoring the various superheroes kids (and adults) have idolized.
The new medal features an image of Superman flexing his muscles in flight over a rural setting of a barn, furrowed fields and a sunrise. The reverse depicts a young boy leaning on a wooden rail fence looking skyward with tall grass near the posts, a man working on an old pick-up truck, a farm home and plane soaring among puffy clouds.
When released later this month, the silver medal will come in two sizes – one-ounce and 2-1/2 ounces. The one-ounce silver medal is slated to sell for $135. The 2.5-ounce version will be $275. The number of medals to be issued is unlimited.
Unlike its silver counterparts, the half-ounce gold piece, with similar images on the front and back, will be an actual, legal tender US coin. It is not yet priced but will probably sell for something north of $2,000. Mintage for the gold coin is limited to 10,000.
Those early Action comic and Detective comic books originally sold for a dime. Obviously, unlike the comics of the 1930s, kids will need a whole lot more than a dime to acquire the medals. Then again, these days, kids seem to have loads more money. Either way, I suppose with the new coins, the “man of steel” might alternately become known as the man of silver and gold. Time will tell.
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