The New Jersey coin dealer who recently purchased the 1794 silver dollar for over $10 million is jumping into hobby politics.
Consumer protection is the issue that prompts dealer Laura Sperber of Legend Numismatics to declare her candidacy for the board of governors of the American Numismatic Association in the June election.
“If I win a seat on the ANA board, I will make a small part of the ANA into a consumer protection/advocacy group that will have razor sharp teeth,” she declared on her firm’s website.
I strongly believe the ANA should govern the hobby, the dealers, the auction houses, and yes, the grading services. I know with 30,000+ members behind me voting for this, we can clean things up and take back the hobby,” she wrote.
She advocates that the ANA begin an “accepted dealer” program where participants would have to meet rigorous standards and agree not to “purposely buy or sell doctored coins and truly be of the highest ethical standards.”
She wants ANA to have standards higher than any other organization in the field today.
She feels auction houses should disclose the coins they own in their sales and report to the ANA and grading services coins that have been “messed with” by coin doctors.
The ANA should not accept any money for sponsorship from any grading service or coin business, she declared. “The ANA cannot be in anyone’s back pocket,” she explained.
To oversee these actions, she wrote, “I would create a powerful committee that would hold people responsible.”
She said, “Dealers as a group just won’t take actions. 30,000+ ANA members vs. a few bad dealers seems like good odds to get things done.”
“After spending 40 years in the coin business and seeing so much change,” Sperber said, “I want to insure that the hobby will be preserved and protected for generations to come. This hobby has given me so much. Now its time for me to give back.”
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