The Zorkmid Project

Short answer: I had not factored in freight and labor, and this project entailed more labor than two volunteers were willing to do without pay. (Having to pay people in real‐world currency adds a major expense.) One person interested in investing in the project lost interest given Activision’s requirement that zorkmids must only be sold for cost.

But I leave this page up in hopes that I may yet realize this little dream I have. E‐mail me if you have any ideas.

Oh, here’s one. Jota had an idea to make a zorkmid‐inspired geocoin (with images of the proposed obverse and reverse).

Zorkmids are a unit of currency in the Great Underground Empire of the Zork series of games originally by Infocom, and later by Activision, Inc. In these games, zorkmids were first minted during the reign of Belwit the Flat in the year 699 GUE.

Infocom minted zorkmid coins for releases of The Zork Trilogy in 1987, a repackaged omnibus of Zork I-III. For a company known for it’s great touchie-feelies, it was one of the best touchie-feelies ever.

Info-marketer Mike Dornbrook was in charge of game packaging. He kindly described what was involved in getting them made:

From: Mike Dornbrook
Date: Fri 19 Oct 2001 12:27 PM
Subject: RE: Zorkmid coin replicas

Robin,

Dave forwarded your message to me. I was responsible for the Infocom packaging.

The Zorkmid coin was designed by Infocom's internal design group. All the rights to it are owned by Activision.

Arranging manufacture for it was surprisingly difficult. We actually looked into it more than once, but made very little headway with the private mints that could handle it. [They were generally appalled that we wanted to make something look beat-up and old!]

They were also fairly expensive, as feelies went. As I recall, we ordered them in 20,000 quantity, and they cost about 50 cents apiece (in mid-80’s dollars).

It is possible that I still have the original paperwork for the order. I kept the records of the most interesting pieces we produced. I'm leaving town today, so I won't be able to check through my files until next week.

I'd be surprised if the manufacturer kept the dies all these years, but it is possible. As for the size, I just measured the one I have here (what office would be complete without one?). It is somewhat irregular, but the widest point measures 32 mm. My metric ruler doesn't have gradations smaller than 1mm, but 2.6 mm thick looks accurate. I'm not sure I understand the question regarding flat mold without relief. The depressions on it are quite deep, so I'd call it high relief. And yes, it is a copper composite that has been chemically treated to antique it.

[...]

Hope that helps,

-Mike

Alas, I never obtained one of those wonderful coins, having bought Zork I-III back when the manuals were black leaflets. As the want-list of Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe will attest, several other fans are seeking zorkmids too. Once I even saw one auctioned on eBay.

The coins are made of copper composite chemically antiqued to darken the deeply recessed areas.

They have been described as somewhat irregular in shape, but 32 mm in diameter at their widest point. This irregularity may be clever illusion created by a thick, slightly misshapen rim on a perfectly round coin.

The obverse bears the flatheaded profile captioned BELWIT THE FLAT. Above the profile is the denomination ONE ZORKMID, and beneath is the year 699 G.U.E.. The reverse depicts Castle Egreth in three-dimensional relief. Above is the motto IN FROBS WE TRUST, and below is some fictional ancient script.

What if a bunch of fans raised a couple thousand dollars and contracted a private mint to press 500 or so replicas of the Zork Trilogy zorkmid coin?

Here’s how I thought it would work:

• Officially license the images from Activision.
• Set up a website to collect payment up front in a PayPal or similar account created for this specific purpose, pooling the orders together into one bulk order.
• Announce the zorkmid pool publically on rec.arts.int-fiction and elsewhere so lots of people can buy in. The more the better.
• Hire a mint to make a new coining die (if the original dies are unavailable), perhaps from a plaster mold cast from one of the original zorkmid coins.
• When the shipment from the mint comes in, repackage and ship the coins to everyone who bought in.

We must license the artwork on the coins from Activision, since they hold a copyright on it. Further, it is only proper to ask their blessing to manufacture Zork commemoratives. Let us hope they don’t outright refuse or charge too hefty a fee.

I wrote Laird Malamed, technical director of Zork Nemesis and Zork Grand Inquisitor, and got a green light, with some conditions:

From: Malamed, Laird
Date: Wed 24 Oct 2001 12:51 AM
Subject: RE: Zorkmid coin replicas

Hi Robin,

I've checked here (the guy I needed was only out until today), and we are ok with your request provided the following:

1. You sign a letter regarding this request specifying the things stated below plus some other copyright stuff we need to do to protect our rights. This will be our contract.
2. The coins created will not be sold for profit. They can be sold only to the people you have organized to make them. They must be sold for cost.
3. Any paperwork or notices associated with the coins acknowledge the (C) of Activision.
4. You provide us free of charge 25 final coins.
5. You provide us with the ability to approve the process as it is ongoing (if possible). Ie if you have to pick a patina, you show that to us too. If you get a first pass coin, you show it to us, etc... I am not really sure of the process on making these things, so we'll adjust this to be reasonable.
6. You provide us with the final mold so only we can make more coins. If you decide to do a second run, we will of course give it back to you for that.

The good news is that it only costs you the coins for us, which you can build into your per coin cost to others.

Sound ok? Let me know and I'll get something drawn up.

Laird

PS Is there anything time sensitive on this? I am trying to get Wolfenstein out the door and my time is limited.

PPS I think this is very cool.

PPPS One of my prized possessions is my Zorkmid. It's on my shelf here at work.

A couple collectors (Matthew Murray and C.E. Forman) strongly recommended making the replicas identifiable in some way, to prevent unscrupulous speculators from trying to sell the replicas as originals.

A mint has informed me they are required by federal law to put their mint mark on every coin they produce, even commemoratives. If so, there will be a small mark indicating the source of the coins, akin to the tiny P or D next to the head on USA coins indicating whether the coin was minted in Philadelphia or Denver.

If a more obvious change were desired, there were some alterations we could have made that don’t involve changing the material or size.

• Advance the date on the coin from 699 G.U.E. to 700 G.U.E.. We're probably going to have to make a new coining die anyway. How better to mark them as being minted in a different year?
• Feature a different Flathead. Since Zork Grand Inquisitor zorkmids have Idwit Oogle Flathead's head, we might presume other flatheads have been featured on the coins during their reign. For example, we could make 771 GUE coins with Dimwit Flathead on the front and castle Flatheadia on the back. Would collectors of the original coins be more interested in coins that looked so different from the ones they have? Or less interested in coins that stray from the original design? Can we produce art as high in quality as the original coin?
• Don’t antique them so they come out looking shiny and new. This has the advantage of making the coins cheaper. However, part of their appeal is that they look like centuries-old coins. The misshapen border and off-center letters may seem out of place on a shiny new coin.

Minting would cost over $7 per coin, not including shipping costs, at the 500 coin level.

Northwest Territorial Mint estimated the two round 32 mm dies would cost $600 each. 500 antiqued copper coins themselves would cost about $4.85 per coin. (We’re not going to rate any bulk discounts with these quantities.) Without freight, that comes to:

Quantity	Cost per coin
500	$7.49
750	$6.61
1000	$6.17
1250	$5.91
1500	$5.73

We could make plastic sleeves available as an option. They would probably enable us to ship individual coins sealed in cardboard UPS envelopes. Insurance would be advisable if sent that way, but we can let the buyers decide whether to pay $2 more for insurance or not.