Image of the Silver Surfer Quarter released by 20th Century Fox and the Franklin Mint

It looks like 20th Century Fox should have done a little more research before releasing 40,000 Silver Surfer themed quarters into circulation over the Memorial Day weekend. Created by the Franklin Mint, the quarter violates federal law and the U.S. Mint isn’t happy.

The U.S. Mint said in a news release Friday that it learned of the promotional quarter this week and advised the studio and The Franklin Mint they were breaking the law. It is illegal to turn a coin into an advertising vehicle, and violators can face a fine.

“The promotion is in no way approved, authorized, endorsed, or sponsored by the United States Mint, nor is it in any way associated or affiliated with the United States Mint,” according to the release. The federal mint did not say whether the studio or the private Franklin Mint would face a penalty.

The altered coins are quarters honoring the state of California that entered circulation in 2005. They feature George Washington on the front, as usual, but a colorized version of the character on the back. All 40,000 are slated to be in circulation throughout the country by the end of Memorial Day weekend, and about 800 were released in each state.

In all likelihood, the studio knew exactly what they were doing, as did the Franklin Mint. What started out as a unique promotion is now national news. Since there’s no such thing as bad publicity, just add this law-breaking tactic to the list of promotions used by 20th Century Fox to increase visibility for Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer.

If you’d like a Sliver Surfer quarter of your own, they are (of course) currently all over ebay.

Mock up image of the Silver Surfer quarter.

Alright, I really need to find one of these. If there are any generous readers out there who manage to find ore than one and would like to send one my way, it would be greatly appreciated. This has got to be one of the most unique promotions I’ve ever seen. Details below from Newsarama article.

According to the plan for the promotion, a fleet of silver armored trucks have been loaded with the coins, will leave from the Twentieth Century Fox lot to deliver quarters across the United States, and on May 22nd, 40,000 Silver Surfer quarters will be put into circulation across the country.

From the official rules:

Those who find the Silver Surfer coin can go to the movie website (http://www.riseofthesilversurfer.com/) and register to win a Four-day trip for Four to the World Premiere of Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer in London. The grand prize winner will be announced on June 1st.

The first Four people to go online to report Silver Surfer coin findings will receive a special private screening of Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer for their friends and family in their hometown the night before the film’s nationwide release (June 14th).

Every person who finds a Silver Surfer coin will be eligible to visit the movie’s website on a daily basis to flip the virtual coin for a chance to win Fantastic instant prizes.

Pretty cool TV Spot for the new Fantastic Four:Rise of the Silver Surfer movie. Unlike some, I really liked the first film. The effects were good, the film was fun and the Human Torch was awesome. The new one should be more goodness in that vein. With their origin out of the way, we can get to them using their powers immediately. I’m also looking forward to seeing them swap powers (see the commercial). Writer Mark Waid had a story that used something similar to this a few years back in the Fantastic Four comic where Johnny and Sue swapped powers.

A new site opened today to promote the June 15 release of Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Over at F4MovieArcade.com you can currently grab 3 games (with 3 more to come) and embed them in your website, blog, or mySpace page. The coolest thing about them is each one generates unique stats and scores for the site in which it is embedded. So, you can play the game here and have the high score, but if you play it on another site, you’re playing against that site’s players. Cool.

Now, try out some Human Torch action.

The Human Torch (Johnny Storm) from Rise of the Silver Surfer

The final trailer for the new Fantastic Four movie Rise of the Silver Surfer was released on Monday. I know a lot of people may disagree, but I think it looks great. The Silver Surfer looks great and the movie looks to take a fun tone, which is what a lot of people may not like.

As the father of a superhero / Star Wars obsessed 3.5 year old, I’m glad the new FF movie looks fun. He’s been talking about Spider-Man for months now, but Jill and I think Venom may be a bit too much for him to see, in the theater at least. Just last night I was showing him some preview and he said he didn’t want to watch the scene where Toby Maguire turns into Venom, so I covered his eyes.

Just a few minutes before, he laughed out loud at the part in the FF trailer Johnny and Ben switch powers and he said “the Thing’s got hair!” So, with Spider-Man 3 looking a little too intense (same for Transformers), I’m glad that Fantastic Four is a movie we can both see and geek out over together.

Speaking of geeking out, check out the image above. It looks that Johnny won’t just be switching powers, but he’ll be pulling a Super-Skrull and wield the powers of all 4 members of the FF. The image shows Johnny with a flaming Thing hand (which later stretches in the trailer).