Professional Numismatist
About/Experience
- Independent coin dealer since 1969
- Former professional coin grader for PCGS, Professional Coin Grading Service
- Former price guide market analyst and consultant for:
- Coin World’s Trends and Coin Values magazine
- The Coin Dealer Newsletter/Greysheet
- CAC Market Values
- PCGS Price Guide
- Nationally recognized expert of the famously rare and valuable 1804 silver dollar known as “The King of American Coins”
- Made major discovery in 2013 at the American Numismatic Society in New York City that the Dexter 1804 dollar legitimately appeared in the 1884 Weyl auction, disproving the 1962 Newman-Bressett published claim that the coin was “planted” in the sale
- Researcher and author of the 2014 award-winning book – “The Dollar of 1804: The U.S. Mint’s Hidden Secret” – focused on the famous Dexter 1804 dollar
- Researcher and author of more than 1,000 coin market reports, columns and feature articles published in mainstream coin market publications
- Recognized expert in the highest quality, rarity and highest-value U.S. coins
- Author of multiple published articles for the British and Japanese coin markets
- Appointed in 2020 to the American Numismatic Association’s Membership and Outreach Committee
- Built and exhibited the “Marquee Exhibit” for the 2024 American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money in Chicago – “Having Fun with The King of American Coins: The Dollar of 1804”
- Received 50-year membership award from the American Numismatic Association at its 2024 convention
- Received “Legislative Champion” award from the National Coin and Bullion Association at the 2024 ANA convention for personal efforts in obtaining a sales and use tax exemption in Wisconsin for precious metal bullion and coins
My Story The Early Years
Collecting and then buying and selling coins has been a life-long endeavor for me. I began collecting coins at about age six when my grandmother let me search through her coffee can of coins. At about age nine, I began trading stamps and coins with other kids in my neighborhood.
As a teenager, I earned the stamp collecting and coin collecting merit badges in Boy Scouts which encouraged me even more. That was on my way to becoming an Eagle Scout, which I achieved.
When I was 16, my father introduced me to Lowell Kronmiller who he knew through the local Rotary Club of which they were both members. Lowell was the executive director of the local branch of the United Fund, now the United Way, and also operated a part-time coin shop, known as “Numismatically Yours.” Now it’s an art gallery.
For about a year, I worked in his shop, without pay. He mentored me, took me to my first coin show, and basically taught me how to buy and sell coins as a business. He then sent me off on my own to build my business.
After that experience, I never looked back. I’ve been buying and selling coins and precious metals ever since. In high school, I conducted my first “mail bid” sale – an auction by mail. Over the years, I’ve produced nearly 50 mail bid sales – in the pre-internet days.
I paid for my college tuition and books by trading coins, but after about two and a half years my coin business was growing and I quit school to build my business. Almost immediately, I attended my first major national coin show in Long Beach, California.
That experience introduced me to high-end mint state and proof coins. I returned home with a new inventory and conducted another successful mail bid sale. In a few weeks, I returned to Southern California to stock up again.
National Business
I was one of the first coin dealers in my area to make the transition from offering circulated coins purchased from people who pulled them from change to high-end mint state and proof coins.
Soon, I was setting up tables at major coins shows coast to coast to buy and sell coins. Then came employees. For several years, one or two accompanied me to many of the shows.
They’d work behind the tables selling coins while I bought coins from other dealers around the show, often known as a “bourse floor.” Many years of buying this way helped me to get to know most of the top dealers around the country.
Now, through those dealer friends around the country, I can raise large sums of money to purchase high-value collections. Many of them are also great prospects to sell high-end coins to because they have private clients who are looking to purchase major rarities
The King of American Coins
My involvement with the 1804 dollar began in the early 1980s. The home of H.O. Granberg was for sale in my hometown, Oshkosh, Wisconsin and I purchased it. Granberg was well known around the country for collecting U.S. coins of the highest rarity.
He served as Chairman of the Board of the American Numismatic Association from 1911 to 1914, then President in 1915. The ANA is now headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
Among the great rarities Granberg owned was the Idler 1804 silver dollar. Fittingly, the American Numismatic Association now owns that coin! It was given to the association in the 1990s by Aubrey and Adeline Beebe, collectors and dealers from Omaha, Nebraska.
Now, Granberg’s safe, where the 1804 dollar would have been stored, resides on display in the ANA museum. I donated the safe to the ANA in the early 2000s.
Granberg was in the mining business in Colorado and Wyoming during the time he collected coins. While he remained living in Oshkosh, his son and wife resided in Denver. I used to visit them often, every time I travelled to Colorado.
They possessed two curious works of art they kept on a home office wall. They were very old and the subject of each of them pertained to “The Dollar of 1804.” I wondered what they represented and I thought they must be of importance in the numismatic world. After all, the Granberg family once owned an 1804 dollar.
During the late 1980s Mrs. Granberg began downsizing after her husband passed away. She wanted me to be pall bearer for his funeral. Later, she offered to sell me the 1804 dollar artworks and some coins.
I jumped at the chance and purchased the art. They seemed to commemorate the 1804 dollar owned by James Vila Dexter of Denver. The date “1887” was written on one of them.
In 1989, several months after acquiring these artworks, the Dexter 1804 silver dollar became the first coin to sell at public auction at the million dollar level! It brought $990,000.
I was at the auction and sat directly behind the underbidder. Excitement was present in the coin market for months to come after the sale!
After the auction, I immediately sprang into action and published limited edition prints of the more colorful work of art from 1887 commemorating the Dexter 1804 Dollar. I also began researching the Dexter Dollar, making several important discoveries along the way.
25 years later, I wrote and published a book about 1804 dollars, focusing on the Dexter Dollar: “The Dollar of 1804: The U.S. Mint’s Hidden Secret.”
Price Guides/Appraisal Work
I first hear the word “Internet” in 1994. By 1995 I found myself sitting with an 800-page Netscape Navigator book creating my first website: www.1804dollar.com I still maintain that website. It focuses on the story in my 1804 dollar book.
While building the website, I called the editors of Coin World and Numismatic News, the two main weekly newspapers in the coin collecting hobby, to get permission to use an image of a particular front page of each paper.
Both of them granted permission. But soon, I received a call from the editor of Coin World to take over and run their price guide, Coin World Trends. I was told, “We think you can do it.”
They wanted to hire me full-time and move me to Ohio where they were based. That didn’t appeal to me but we worked out an arrangement to run the price guide for several months until they hired someone. The new person stayed five years and then moved on.
Then, on a Saturday morning in 2002, I received another call from the same editor. She quickly laid it out, “Stuart’s leaving. Do you want to take over? And you don’t have to move.”
The coin market was slow at the time and we worked out another arrangement to take over the price guide. I ran Coin World Trends, then Coin World’s Coin Values (magazine), for a total of eight years.
After that stint ended, I got a call from the Coin Dealer Newsletter, also known as the Greysheet, to help that price guide. For another five years, I ghost-wrote the front page column, “The Market in Depth.”
Unfortunately, the publisher passed away and the publication was sold. Soon thereafter, I researched, built and published my own price guide, CAC Market Values.
About five years later, during the pandemic, the President of PCGS called me looking for help with it’s price guide. After two months we reached an agreement in which PCGS purchased CAC Market Values from me and I agreed to help run the PCGS Price Guide for the next three years.
Over those 20+ years of price guide work, I’ve written more than 1,000 coin market reports and feature stories for those publications. That writing work was what people saw, but the real work was behind the scenes.
It involved pouring over and studying auction records for rare coins and setting fair published prices. Over the years, I estimate that I’ve analyzed literally millions of individual auctions records.
Especially for major rarities, appraisals and price guide work involve studying auction descriptions for those coins. Population reports, specialized reference books and other sources are also used in depth for analysis of the coin market and individual rare coin values.
Research Library Essential for Appraisals & Marketing Rare Coins
I’ve been building my numismatic research library since I was a teenager. I call it my “working library” and I’m still adding to it.
My library has been absolutely essential for appraisals of rarities. And it’s been invaluable for marketing rarities.
I have a large number of specialized books about die varieties and attribution of rare coins. These include books on large cents, Bust coinage, Seated Liberty coinage, etc.
I love researching coins and if you need advanced help with rarities call or email me.
Whether you want to sell a coin collection, purchase precious metals or need an appraisal, feel free to call me anytime for a friendly discussion of how I can be of service to you in the coin and precious metals field.
