I found a place in the Czech republic that makes amazing copies of
ancient coins in gold, silver, and very affordable tin (they’re very
upfront about their replica business, they do not appear to be trying
to pull the wool over anybody’s eyes, and their products are
excellent). I bought some of the coins in tin and tried to make
molds of them for PMC using very new, fresh Bellicold from Rio. It
worked well except that there seemed to be no way to strike the right
balance between pushing the coin into the molding material just
enough to make a good impression, vs. pushing it in too far and
giving the face concerned a double chin. (The Bellicold added 30
years to my Alexander the Great, giving him a honking double chin;
Colin Farrell he is not). I have had great success molding things
beside profiles of faces in Bellicold, however. It just doesn’t seem
to do well with any shallow design.
I experimented with molding only one side of the coin using an RTV
kit from TAP Plastics, and the mold turned out just great. I have
yet to actually use it to mold PMC so there may be unpleasant
surprises ahead. My question is, has anyone made molds for PMC using
more high-end molding material such as Castaldo, and is there any
reason to use it instead of the cheaper and more easily available
stuff from TAP when all you’re doing is making a mold for PMC?
If the Czech company makes an exact copy (no added design touches)
of a 2,000 year-old coin (very much out of copyright, assuming it was
ever in) and then I make a mold of the Czech company’s copy and sell
the jewelry, am I violating any copyright laws?
not if you change 1 mark on the coin i.e. adding your trademark or
initial the duplicates will be of different metal and likely larger
as any reproduction through molds tends to be larger. You can
always say they inspired your new jewelry line if you feel that
appropriate
Suzanne Wade sent me a query regarding a copyright question from
Orchid, regarding a Czech coin. Here is the answer from my copyright
lawyer.
Without engaging in any research or specific questioning about
the coin in question, my opinion is that the act of making a
mold of the Czech company's coin and reselling it would likely
be copyright infringement. The Supreme Court of the United
States has repeatedly stated that for copyright purposes the
originality required is slight.
While the 2000 year-old coin is obviously in the public domain,
the issue would be whether a court would find that the Czech
company added even the slightest "new" improvement or
alteration to the coin. If the Czech company's coin were a
"slavish copy" of the original, it would have no copyright
protection. But unless the Czech company made a molding of the
original, I am certain they would be able to show some
artistic interpretation of the original and not any slavish
copying. The client would be better off using the 2000 year-old
coin as inspiration and making their own coin based upon the
original.