A completely unbiased field guide to the strange ecosystem of people who buy, sell, grade, broker, photograph, hoard, and occasionally lose $14 on a Morgan dollar.
The coin business is a beautiful little corner of capitalism populated by collectors, historians, treasure hunters, bullion addicts, professional negotiators, and grown adults who can argue for 45 minutes about whether a Morgan dollar has enough cheek chatter to keep it out of a 65 holder.
Spend enough time in this business and you realize there aren’t really thousands of different coin dealers.
There are about ten.
They simply keep reproducing at coin shows.
So, in the interest of education, industry harmony, and making absolutely no new friends, here’s our completely scientific guide to The 10 Types of Coin Dealers.
1. The Rare Coin / Numismatic Dealer
Hasn’t paid retail for anything since 1987, yet somehow every coin he owns is a “once-in-a-generation opportunity.”
Bring him your coin and the autopsy begins.
Questionable color.
Mediocre luster.
Soft strike.
Wrong holder.
Too much chatter.
Not enough eye appeal.
“Just isn’t something my customers are looking for.”
This man can dismantle your retirement plan with a loupe and three adjectives.
Then you notice his identical coin sitting in the showcase.
Suddenly we’re looking at a:
“Spectacular, original, premium-quality example with tremendous eye appeal.”
Apparently ownership is the most powerful conservation technique known to numismatics.
He’s also been carrying the same $14,000 Bust Half for eleven years because he’s “waiting for the right collector.”
There is no right collector.
There is only a progressively dustier Bust Half and a man who will die before admitting he paid too much for it.
2. The Bullion Dealer
The closest thing numismatics has to a gas-station owner, except the price changes every thirty seconds and everyone walking through the door thinks they understand his margins.
Gold goes up $100:
“Market’s too volatile. Gotta protect ourselves.”
Gold drops $100:
“Market’s too volatile. Gotta protect ourselves.”
Somehow every conceivable market condition requires you to get fucked on the spread.
Customer wants to sell?
“We’re back of spot.”
Customer wants to buy?
“Premiums are crazy right now.”
Fascinating how that works.
He’ll wire $450,000 to a wholesaler named Vinny after a 38-second phone call but interrogates the grandmother selling six Silver Eagles like Treasury just issued a suspicious activity alert.
Moves half a million dollars of metal in a week and celebrates making enough margin to replace the toner cartridge.
3. The Estate & Collection Buyer
Shows up to a house where Grandpa spent sixty years carefully building what the family repeatedly describes as:
“His investment portfolio.”
Everyone is emotionally prepared for buried treasure.
First box:
Franklin Mint.
Second box:
Colorized state quarters.
Third box:
Twenty-seven commemorative plates accompanied by certificates proudly explaining that each was:
LIMITED TO ONLY 94,000 PIECES.
Grandpa apparently spent $87,000 assembling a collection with the liquidity of used carpeting.
Six hours later, buried underneath three pounds of wheat cents, twelve empty proof-set boxes, commemorative spoons, and a Littleton invoice from 1994, there’s one 1916-D Mercury dime.
Now everybody suddenly remembers Grandpa telling them he was a genius and starts mentally shopping for boats.
4. The Wholesale Coin Dealer
Possesses the supernatural ability to hate every coin until approximately four seconds after he owns it.
While buying:
“Dead coin. Ugly color. Weak strike. Wrong holder. Nobody’s buying these. I’m probably buried at $1,100.”
You reluctantly sell it.
Later that afternoon the dealer network gets:
🔥 FRESH!!! MONSTER ORIGINAL GEM!!! 🔥
IMPOSSIBLE TO FIND THIS NICE!!!
$1,895 NET FIRM — DON’T ASK FOR MY BEST PRICE.
This man could buy the Mona Lisa and complain about the fucking brush strokes.
Then fifteen minutes later he’d send a dealer blast:
“Fresh to market. Old European collection. Incredible eye appeal.”
5. The Brick-and-Mortar Coin Shop
You open the door and immediately smell:
Old carpet.
Stale coffee.
Cardboard flips.
And forty-three years of resentment.
There’s a 1986 Greysheet behind the counter.
Nobody knows why.
The owner sits underneath fluorescent lighting engineered to make every coin look cleaned and every human being look terminally ill.
Customer:
“My father said this was worth $5,000.”
Dealer:
“Your father was wrong.”
Customer:
“But I saw one online—”
Dealer:
“Then fucking buy that one.”
The phone rings.
He stares directly at it until it stops.
The sign on the door says:
OPEN TUESDAY–FRIDAY 10–5
This is more of a philosophical position than an actual schedule.
6. The Online Coin Dealer
Has transformed selling a $90 Morgan dollar into a NASA launch.
$6,000 camera.
$2,000 macro lens.
Copy stand.
Diffusers.
Polarizing filters.
Custom white balance.
Twenty-seven photographs.
4K rotating video.
Then writes a 700-word description discussing strike characteristics, cartwheel luster, historical significance, and apparently the emotional journey of the Philadelphia Mint.
Lists coin for:
$129.95 — FREE SHIPPING!!!
Four minutes later:
“Would you take $62?”
Dealer declines.
Buyer:
“What’s lowest?”
Eventually sells it for $112.
After marketplace fees, promoted listing fees, shipping, insurance, packaging, and two hours of labor:
Net profit: $3.84.
Immediately starts researching a better camera.
7. The Auction / Consignment Dealer
Possibly the greatest business model ever invented.
You supply the coins.
They sell the coins.
The buyer pays a fee.
You pay a fee.
There’s a photography fee.
Insurance fee.
Processing fee.
Catalog fee.
Internet fee.
And possibly a fee-processing fee.
Your collection realizes:
$31,700.
The auction house proudly announces:
“OUTSTANDING RESULT!”
Your check arrives:
$19,418.37
Meanwhile, the buyer paid roughly $38,000.
Somewhere between those two numbers, eighteen grand wandered into a financial Bermuda Triangle wearing a bidder paddle.
8. The Specialty Dealer
This man knows more about one particular coin than the United States Mint knew while manufacturing it.
Ask:
“What’s this 1798 cent?”
Congratulations.
You’ve accidentally enrolled in graduate school.
You’re about to hear about Sheldon varieties, die states, diagnostics, planchet characteristics, edge devices, and a microscopic crack above Liberty’s eyebrow that appeared approximately halfway through the die marriage.
Forty-five minutes later you realize nobody has actually discussed the price.
Ask him about a modern Silver Eagle.
He looks genuinely offended.
“I don’t deal with modern material.”
Brother.
You’re selling pennies from a folding table at a Holiday Inn.
Settle down.
9. The Certified-Coin / Grading Dealer
Has reached the final stage of numismatics where the coin itself is basically irrelevant.
It’s all about the plastic now.
PCGS 65?
Great coin.
NGC 65?
“Probably a 64.”
ANACS 65?
“Raw coin.”
His coin comes back MS63:
“PCGS absolutely murdered me.”
Resubmits.
MS63.
Cracks it.
Sends it to NGC.
MS64.
“I FUCKING KNEW IT.”
Sends it to CAC.
No sticker.
“CAC has gotten ridiculously tight.”
By the time he’s finished proving everyone else wrong, he’s spent $380 grading a coin worth $275.
But the money stopped mattering three submissions ago.
It’s about principle now.
10. The Coin Broker
The apex predator of the coin business because he has successfully eliminated coins from the coin business.
Doesn’t own inventory.
Doesn’t have a storefront.
Doesn’t photograph anything.
Doesn’t grade anything.
Doesn’t package anything.
Doesn’t ship anything.
You:
“I have a $40,000 collection.”
Broker:
“I know a guy.”
Calls Steve.
Steve calls Mike.
Mike texts Gary.
Gary sends pictures to somebody named Big Al.
Nobody knows Big Al’s last name.
Three hours later:
“We can probably get something done around $32K.”
Collection sells for $38,000.
Somehow five people get paid.
You’re standing there wondering who the fuck actually bought your coins.
Broker pockets $3,000.
Never left his kitchen.
Absolute fucking legend!
And Then There’s the Hybrid Dealer
Rare Coins + Estates + Wholesale + Specialty + Whatnot
This poor bastard has somehow combined every dysfunctional corner of the coin industry into one business model.
Buys a collection Monday.
Photographs it Tuesday.
Calls wholesalers Wednesday.
Lists the good stuff Thursday.
Gets drunk and sells the rest on Whatnot for $1 starts Friday.
Monday morning he’s negotiating a $75,000 estate.
Tuesday he’s researching an obscure German coin minted by some dead duke whose kingdom hasn’t existed since Napoleon.
Wednesday he’s explaining to someone why their grandmother’s “extremely rare” 1971 Eisenhower dollar is worth $1.
Thursday he’s arguing with a wholesaler over $40 on a $12,000 deal.
Friday night he’s screaming:
“WHO WANTS ANOTHER FUCKING MORGAN?!”
while giving away silver every five minutes to people with usernames like BUTTCOIN69.
Saturday morning he opens the spreadsheet.
Revenue: $14,782
Coins sold: 137
Giveaways: $486
Shipping mistakes: 3
Alcohol consumed: Classified
Profit: Apparently negative $14
He checks it again.
Pulls out a calculator.
Checks the Whatnot report.
Checks the purchase price.
Stares silently into the distance.
And after twenty minutes of forensic accounting, there is only one reasonable conclusion:
“HOW THE FUCK DID WE LOSE $14 ON THAT MORGAN?”
Welcome to the Coin Business
And that’s the coin business.
A remarkably small industry filled with experts, characters, curmudgeons, hustlers, historians, treasure hunters, and people willing to spend three hours negotiating over a coin so they can make forty-two dollars.
We make fun of it because we’re part of it.
And because somewhere, right now, a dealer is looking at a perfectly nice coin and saying:
“I just don’t like the color.”
While quietly calculating exactly how cheap he needs to buy it.
Redmond Rare Coins & Precious Metals
Established 1995
425-823-2646 (COIN)
Rare coins, precious metals, estates, and other questionable financial decisions.