What is the quality of Empire Magic Coin Sets? A long time ago, I used to buy sets by Sasco, Sterling, and Johnson Products. Johnson were clearly the highest quality. Sasco came in third. Does Empire compare with Sasco or Sterling?

You are probably talking about the Empire brand as issued by Loftus Novelty. Those coins were made by Sasco. Sasco also made unbranded items for Fun Inc, Steve Dusheck, Tenyo and many others.

For many years, Sasco had 3 machinists, one was great, one was ok and one was not so great. That is why you have this dual reality with Sasco. One customer could say the quality was great and another that it was terrible and they would both be right. It would depend on who made what.

The Empire items were made to meet a price point, so the amount of time that could be spent on each item was limited.