Northern Nevada: the area’s leading buyer for coins, silver and gold

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Reno Tahoe Business Report

5 min readMay 5, 2022

Coins tell stories: When you hold a small coin from the year 100 BC in your hand, you quickly realize how old human civilization is. The Northern Nevada Coin business specializes in buying coins as wells as precious metals since 1993 and opened its location in Reno in 2011.

The owner, Allen Rowe was fascinated by coins from an early age. Luckily, this childhood passion was encouraged by his grandmother, who gave him even more coins to spur his interest and today, he runs the family business with his wife, Cindy, and a total of 20 employees in their three stores in Reno, Carson City and Gardnerville.

Collections and Conventions

People who are not familiar with coins might wonder where valuable collections come from. In fact, a lot of people inherit coins when someone passes. Sometimes, collectors change their directions and sell their old coins to be able to purchase new ones or they start doing something completely different. Other times life changes and collectors might need the money to pay medical bills.

Major collection on the other hand come up for sale on conventions which is why the coin business is connected to a lot of travelling. Even though conventions were not happening during the peak of the pandemic, Allen travelled quite a bit to find rare collections across the US. In fact, he was able to sell some of the more expensive coins on the latest convention in Chicago.

Value of Coins

The value of coins varies greatly depending on the date of release, country, and many more factors. Americans like spending their money on coins, and quite regularly the Northern Nevada sells coins worth over $100,000. The most valuable coin they could sell was worth $450,000, however most coins are priced between $500 and $5,000. While some customers come into the store thinking their coins are much more valuable than they actually are, others are surprised how precious their collection really is.

Furthermore, the Northern Nevada sells mainly American coins. Additionally, they offer and buy some coins from other countries as well as coins from ancient times, which were made by the Romans and Greeks hundreds of years B.C.

Surprisingly, the most valuable coins in the world are American ones, even though the Chinese ones are big on the rise. They are constantly growing in value and Allen adds that they are “probably the most valuable coins in the next century.”

Fair Bargaining

Naturally, coin dealers must be good at bargaining, but the Northern Nevada tries to bargain in a fair way. “Our business is only growing if everybody wins. People trust our reputation.”, Allen says. The company never plays games like, ‘go see what they will pay, and the Northern Nevada will pay more.’

When it comes to business they have a simple belief, ‘either your company is growing or its dying.’ The Northern Nevada is far from infancy, but still growing and has a tremendous amount of knowledge to offer. Currently, many people are afraid that the value of currencies will diminish and thus, invest in precious metals. To save their wealth, they are looking into gold and silver and the Norther Nevada has the best gold buying reputation in the region.

When a customer comes to one of their gold buying facilities in Carson, Reno or Gardnerville, the employees have the best interest of the client in mind. Quite regularly, customers bring in gold that they think is only worth a few hundred dollars and walk out between $1,000-$2,000.

Area’s Leading Buyer

Although anybody can call themselves a coin dealer and the industry is relatively open, professionals need various licenses and tax identifications. The trained experts at each shop not only maximize the dollars in their customer’s pocket, but also know when to further investigate the items the customer is selling. In fact, Allen Rowe is the only person in Northern Nevada who is a member of the Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG).

Finally, selling gold locally keeps the regional economy strong. Being the largest gold buyer in the Reno, Sparks, Carson City, and Lake Tahoe area the Northern Nevada can be tied to numerous organizations that it supports locally. Undoubtedly, the Northern Nevada is the area’s leading buyer and clear choice when it comes to selling your coins. The well-structured website helps customers to find exactly what they are looking for, from coin categories to the owner’s favorite section, the error gallery.

If you are interested in selling your valuables, you can either bring them to one of the local stores, ship them, or if the collection is large enough, someone from Northern Nevada will come by in person.