How Do People Become A Coin Dealer?
There’s no degree or apprenticeship for becoming a coin dealer, and sometimes an unexpected inspiration can shape a career decades before it begins.
Learning to become a coin dealer is not something taught in schools. There are no nationwide apprenticeship programs or college degree programs for this career.
So, how do people become a coin dealer? One of the two most common means is being a child of a coin dealer who grew up in the hobby and industry. The other popular route is that of a serious numismatist who might evolve into a part-time coin dealer or who might become a full-time dealer after retirement from another career.
There are also some instances where someone has inherited such an extensive collection that they became a dealer to maximize the prices they received for what they sold.
Neither of these apply to me. I became a collector along with almost everyone on my father’s side of the family in 1964 during the massive surge of numismatic interest with the debut of the Kennedy Half Dollar. A couple of years later, Coin World included a story about a West Coast teenage coin dealer named Robert E. Ladum. Although I already had an interest in going into the business world for a career, this was the first time the thought came to me that maybe someday I could be a coin dealer.
As a sophomore in high school in 1967, our English teacher assigned us to write a term paper about what we would like to be when we grew up. We had to write down our top three choices, then write about our top choice. In my mind, it didn’t feel proper to write about being a coin dealer, so I listed that as my second option and wrote about becoming a meteorologist.
I didn’t know it at the time, but the First U.S. Mint Director, David Rittenhouse, and mid-19th-century Director Robert Maskell Patterson recorded weather observations as part of their interests. And in the years before he was appointed as the U.S. Mint Director in 2000, Jay Johnson worked for a time as a television meteorologist.
I went to college to pursue a business administration degree and then worked as a certified public accountant for seven years. During this time, my girlfriend started attending Michigan State University, where Liberty Coin Service was then less than one block from campus. I started patronizing Liberty and became friends with the founder, R. W. “Bill” Bradford.
When Bradford retired in 1980 after the 1979-1980 bullion boom, he asked me if I was interested in buying the business. I declined. But after I counseled Bradford to avoid a buyout proposed by another party (where the potential buyer and his attorney erroneously or dishonestly claimed that almost all the payments to Bradford would be taxed at lower capital gains tax rates), Bradford apparently decided that I would buy him out. It took him six months to persuade me.
As those who lived through it know, being a coin dealer in the first half of the 1980s was a tough go. Many dealers during that time gravitated to other careers. But I made it. Even though I sold Liberty Coin Service at the beginning of 2015, I still work for that company today.
In February 2018, I finally bumped into Robert E. Ladum at the Long Beach Coin Exposition. We’ve met occasionally since, including this picture we took at the American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money in Pittsburgh last week.
Who knows when their numismatic activities might inspire a future coin dealer?
Last column’s numismatic trivia question.
Last time I asked, “Where did George T. Morgan, designer of the Morgan Dollar and eventually the U.S. Mint’s Chief Engraver, receive his training to design coins?” George T. Morgan was born in England, attended an art school, and then the National Art Training School. After completing his education, he went to work for John Pinches as a die engraver from 1873-1875. In this background, he worked under Joseph Shepherd Wyon and Alfred Benjamin Wyon from the century-long Wyon dynasty of British coin engravers and designers. U.S. Mint Director H.R. Linderman in 1875 wrote to Charles W. Fremantle, the director of the London Mint, asking, “Could you find us a first class diesinker who would be willing to take the position of Assistant Engraver at the Mint in Philadelphia?” Fremantle answered, “My enquiries as to an Assistant Engraver lead me very strong to recommend for the post Mr. George Morgan, aged 30, who has made himself a considerable name, but for whom there is not much opening at present in this country.” The reason that Morgan’s prospects in England were limited was that his last name wasn’t Wyon. Morgan arrived at the Philadelphia Mint in late September 1876, becoming the U.S. Mint’s Chief Engraver in 1917 after the death of Charles Barber.
This week’s trivia question
Here is this week’s question. What was the origin of the term “cent?” Come back next week for the answer.
Patrick A. Heller was honored as a 2019 FUN Numismatic Ambassador. He is also the recipient of the American Numismatic Association 2018 Glenn Smedley Memorial Service Award, the 2017 Exemplary Service Award, the 2012 Harry Forman National Dealer of the Year Award, and the 2008 Presidential Award. Over the years, he has also been honored by the Numismatic Literary Guild, Professional Numismatists Guild, National Coin & Bullion Association, and the Michigan State Numismatic Society. He is the communications officer of Liberty Coin Service in Lansing, Michigan, and writes “Liberty’s Outlook,” a quarterly newsletter on rare coins and precious metals subjects. He now volunteers with the National Coin & Bullion Association as its Industry Issues Advisor. Past newsletter issues can be viewed at www.libertycoinservice.com. Some of his radio commentaries, "Things You ‘Know’ That Just Aren’t So,” and “Important News You Need To Know,” can be heard at 8:45 a.m. Wednesday and Friday mornings on 1320-AM WILS in Lansing (which streams live and becomes part of the audio archives posted at www.1320wils.com).
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