Let me tell you a little about myself and my career

 

I love coins. I have for more than fifty years since I was six years old. During 1969 I began dealing in coins when I was sixteen. My father introduced me to a coin shop owner he knew through his local Rotary Club, Lowell Kronmiller. Lowell owned a coin store called, “Numismatically Yours.” It was in my home town where I was born and where I still live – Oshkosh, Wisconsin. Lowell taught me the basics of the coin business and took me to my first coin show.

I worked in his shop and was paid with the knowledge and experience he gave me. It was the seed of a huge sum – in pleasure, service, money, and camaraderie. He said it could become a career for me – and, of course, it did. I wish I could thank him and show him where my career has taken me, but he passed away many years ago at age 48. I’ve now been involved with coins for longer than he lived, and I’ve become a nationally-recognized expert!

About a year after I met my early mentor, with his encouragement, I ventured out on my own into the world of coin dealing.

During at least the next ten to fifteen years, I made almost all the meetings of three local coin clubs in my area, which met in Oshkosh, Appleton, and Green Bay once or twice a month. I was also doing business at nearly all the coin shows in the state during the same time. I ran ads in my local shopper and bought and sold coins during late afternoons and evenings, after my college classes finished for the day. By the end of 1975, my business had grown to the point where it was interfering with my studies and I decided to devote my energies to my business, rather than college. A month later, I was on my first commercial flight to California to buy inventory at a couple major coin shows for my next mail bid sale, which I had been regularly conducting since I was a high school senior in 1971. Since then, I’ve cataloged and conducted nearly 50 sales containing scarce high-end coins. One of my early customers now regularly buys and sells multi-million dollar rarities. Others have been named- consignors to major auctions. And, the rest of the story is I finally finished my business degree through the University of Wisconsin system, and I celebrated my college graduation along with my 50th birthday!

One of the highlights of my career has been my involvement with the Dexter 1804 Silver Dollar – “The King of American Coins.”

About a year before its record-breaking sale as the first coin to sell at auction at the million dollar level ($990,000, July, 1989), I acquired James V. Dexter’s own historic artwork created for him in 1887. This was two years after he purchased the same coin for $1,000, also a price record for that time, and a year after he took the U.S. Mint to court over this very coin. The acquisition of the artwork started me on a quest to research this important rarity and its story. Since then I’ve written about the Dexter 1804 Dollar extensively, lectured about it, and have displayed a collection of memorabilia surrounding the Dexter 1804 Dollar. I have also reproduced Dexter’s 1887 artwork as a numbered, limited-edition print, and I own the website: 1804dollar.com.

I’ve was an expert coin grader for PCGS, the Professional Coin Grading Service, during the early days of its operations, from the year after it began operations in 1986 to 1990.

During that time I witnessed the “Rare Coin Revolution,” as PCGS called it, as I sat shoulder-to-shoulder with the PCGS founders, grading coins at a large table. I worked in the first three PCGS offices as the grading service grew and we graduated into our own grading stations.

Several years later I held a position of great influence in the U.S. coin market, during 1997, and again between 2002 and 2009.

I researched and established all the values for Coin World Trends, which later became Coin Values magazine.

I wrote the weekly and monthly market analyses, and received countless compliments for my valuation work and writing the weekly market commentaries. In that work for Coin Values magazine, I established values for all U.S. coins in all grades and all price ranges, from five cents to about $5 million, the highest value at the time. At major national coin shows and auctions, I had regular in depth discussions with all sorts of collectors and dealers who are involved in all areas of the U.S. coin market. We discussed and debated the pricing of varieties, trophy coins, generic coins, early copper coins, rare gold coins, type coins, scarce date coins, modern coins, precious metals, etc.

I have written for the American Numismatic Association Journal, CAC, Coin Dealer Newsletter, CDN Monthly Supplement, Coin News (Britain), Coin World, Coin Values magazine, Numismatic News, The Numismatist, for other coin dealers, and for my own ads, brochures, catalogs, and websites. This writing includes being a regular, major columnist for the Coin Dealer Newsletter, Coin World, and Coin Values magazines.

I’d like to be of service to you by helping you navigate the rewarding, but sometimes treacherous, waters of the rare coin market.

Numismatically Yours,

Mark Ferguson