Amazon flips on decision to sell locally produced Trump-Clinton coin

Amazon is putting sales of a Clinton-Trump coin on hold, but metal stamper Long-Stanton Manufacturing is finding ways to continue to sell the fast-selling novelty.

The sixth-generation, 154-year-old West Chester company minted 1,000 brass "Indecision 2016" coins in July as a marketing piece just before the respective parties' conventions, with Donald Trump's face on one side and Hillary Clinton's on the other.

The coin was meant as a tribute to Long-Stanton’s founder, who created coins for presidential candidates Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas during the contentious campaign of 1860.

Sales skyrocketed after the Journal-New wrote about the coin, putting it atop Amazon's "Gag Toys & Practical Jokes" category.

But on Friday, Marvin Cunningham, Long-Stanton’s president, received an email from Amazon saying that its selling privileges had been removed because its current sales volumes “are not supported by buyer feedback or an established sales history.”

“As a result, we are reviewing your Amazon.com seller account,” reads the email. “During this review, you may not sell on Amazon.com.”

Cunningham said the more than two dozen reviews on Amazon should have been enough buyer feedback to warrant continued sales.

“You can imagine my frustration when I found out that the reason for the suspension was that we had been too successful selling our Indecision 2016 coin on Amazon — or exceeded our velocity limit in their language,” Cunningham said. “This is amazing since 95 percent of our sales have been to people in the greater Cincinnati-Dayton area.”

“If we had national exposure, we might have been kicked off Amazon on day one,” he said.

Cunningham said the last two weeks have exceeded the company’s wildest expectations, with more than 1,000 coins sold online and another 2,500 to people locally. That includes both retail stores and people walking into Long-Stanton’s Butler County factory to ask about buying coins.

“On Wednesday, we had a couple drive down from Piqua to buy three coins,” Cunningham said. “They liked them so much that they ended up buying 13 while there were here.”

Long-Stanton is doing its best to get Amazon to expedite its review, which the company said would take 12 to 24 hours to complete, but until then is making the Indecision 2016 coins available at Ace Hardware stores in Hamilton, West Chester, Lebanon, Springboro, Mariemont, Hyde Park, Dillonvale, Loveland and Independence, Ky., and at Franklin Street Coin in Sharonville and Mendelsons in downtown Dayton.

Customers can also visit www.indecision2016coin.com and click the "Buy Yours Here" button to purchase the coin for $8.95 via PayPal. Orders of 10 or more are discounted.

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