Len Augsburger writes:

So I'm looking at this Franklin Mint Collectors Society folio and it enumerates the rights and privileges bestowed upon Society members. Two items intrigued me. The first is that members are ex-officio advisors to The Franklin Mint. Has anyone here (that would be willing to admit to having been a member of such an elite society) acted in that capacity?

The other item of interest was "use of the private Collectors Society Club Room, which will soon be established at The Franklin Mint." As yours truly has never gotten any closer to a private club room than the Red Carpet Club at O'Hare or the Lufthansa lounges in Frankfurt and Munich, what must have lain beyond the velvet ropes and heavy doors of the exclusive private Collectors Society Club Room at the Franklin Mint remains but a fantastic mystery.

I can only imagine it being decorated with the finest orange and purple velours, vinyls, and shag carpets, with rare photographs, documents, and perhaps even galvanos not only of their modern, mid-'70s offerings, but also historic material dating back to the early '70s. Vast arrays of plates would wrap around the upper part of the wall in the bar area for your amazement while sipping sherry, listening to soothing music with a lot of "ba-ba-ba-ba" in the lyrics, and rubbing elbows with other collectibles elite, exchanging droll stories. In the vast landscape of 1970s collectibles, surely this club room was Xanadu. Or maybe it was more like a dentist's waiting room.

Are there any here who were so privileged so see this club room and are no longer sworn to secrecy as to it trappings? Was Longacre taken here in the days of his youth to entice him with visions of the high life afforded those in the circles of international tax code?

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