FORT COLLINS • The clicking of the bulletproof 1930s vintage Brandt Coin Sorter and Counter is both constant and unforgettable, as it spits out coin after coin while Tim Jackson is busy talking shop to a recent visitor from behind his desk at the Corner Coin and Jewelry Inc. on a brisk winter morning.
While Jackson is giving a detailed overview of today’s coin and bullion collecting industry, his 21-year-old granddaughter Grace Kuch pops into the office to say hello. Moments later, Jackson’s son-in-law Brad Kuch enters the office to retrieve some paperwork before heading back to the showroom of Corner Coin and Jewelry.
In a span of no longer than 5 minutes, it becomes apparent that Jackson doesn’t have to look far to find a co-worker he implicitly trusts at the Fort Collins business he co-owns with his son-in-law. Grace also works at the Corner Coin and Jewelry. The family has owned the business since 2020, but it has operated as a coin shop at its present Old Town location since 1978.
Jackson likes having family around him at work for good reason.
“There are an awful lot of resources that sit in these types of stores,” Jackson said. “Not just anybody is going to work here. It is hard enough to run a business, let alone one where you are constantly looking over your shoulder. You got to have the trust value to be in this type of business, and that’s why you see so many family-owned and operated shops do well and stay in business for a long time.”
The Colorado coin industry has a lot going for it — family ties and alliances being one of the most prominent, along with a history that rivals that of just about any other state in the U.S.
A family first business
Over 1,800 miles away at the FUN (Florida United Numismatists) Show in Orlando, Hannah Hallenbeck and her father Tom Hallenbeck sit shoulder-to-shoulder at a booth proudly displaying the family business name: Hallenbeck Coin Gallery.
Though customer traffic is heavy at the booth during the Friday morning of the 4-day event, the two have time to talk about their Colorado Springs family-based business that’s now spanned three generations.
Hannah initially had plans for a career in social services while attending the University of Colorado, where she graduated. However, the pull of working with her father and grandfather, Ken Hallenbeck, alongside her younger brother and mother, who both also work at the gallery, was too much to turn down.
“I thought for a while that I would go into social work and work with children, but this is a lot more fulfilling for me,” Hannah said. “I can pick my projects and interact with people from all walks of life and from, really, all over the world.”
Hannah points to the unique coin-themed travel opportunities as another major selling point to work in the industry.
“We went on a lot of coin-related vacations growing up,” Hannah said. “One year we were able to visit the Austrian Mint in Vienna, which doesn’t offer tours to the public but my dad knew some people there. We were able to see their collection of gold coins, but the person holding the tray dropped them. The lights came on and we all froze until all of the coins were found. It was a pretty tense situation there for a moment.”
Hannah also points out that she was born during the Denver Coin Expo in 1996. Her dad had to race from Denver in a snowstorm to Colorado Springs to be there when she was born.
“I’ve literally been around coin shows my whole life,” Hannah says.
If ever there was a modern-day first family of coin enthusiasts in Colorado, it would be the Hallenbecks. The Hallenbeck Coin Gallery opened in 1983 and has remained a staple in downtown Colorado Springs ever since.
The father-son duo of Ken and Tom Hallenbeck have each served terms as president of the American Numismatic Association, becoming the first father-son combination to do so.
Asked whether his daughter would also one day serve as president of the ANA, Tom, with a bit of a wry smile, responded, “Yeah, maybe.”
At 93, Ken Hallenbeck remains very active. He spent a good portion of Presidents Day with his son and granddaughter at his Colorado Springs coin gallery and will be traveling with the two to Atlanta for a big coin show at the end of February.
“It is going to be a fun event for us,” Hannah Hallenbeck said. “It is great having him around because he is such a wealth of knowledge.”
‘A bit of an underworld’
No more than 20 yards away from the Hallenbeck’s display at FUN stood Ashley Sandoval. The Colorado native and Erie resident has a booth of her own to tend to — Erie Gold and Silver — at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando.
After wrapping up a meeting with a prospective client, Sandoval was eager to discuss what brought her to Orlando and what led her into the unique world of numismatics and gold buying and selling. Not surprisingly, family ties were at the top of her list.
“My uncle had a coin shop when I was growing up, and I started working there when I was about 12,” Sandoval said. “I worked with a couple of guys and was lucky to get to go to a few shows growing up, but I also really liked the shop settings. I really like Northern Colorado and just settled near Erie. I will have been at Erie Gold and Silver for six years in April, and it’s grown during that time but the business has been around for over 15 years.”
Sandoval qualifies that she is not a serious coin collector other than that she has an affinity for collecting Costa Rican Counterstamp coins.
“I probably see one about every five shows,” she says.
More importantly, Sandoval says she loves the business side of coins and developing relationships with clientele and others working in the coin industry.
“It is definitely a bit of an underworld,” Sandoval said. “Most people are very specific as to what they collect — be it for historical significance or personal investment reasons. People are passionate about collecting and we want to build life-long relationships with customers.”
Paul Frese, owner of the Littleton-based A Coin Shop, has been in the coin business for close to 40 years. He echoes much of what Sandoval says and, yes, family ties also helped pique his interest in collectibles.
“I began collecting with my grandfather when I was about 7 — you know collecting stamps and putting stamps into books,” Frese said from his own booth at the FUN Show. “I transitioned into coins about a year after high school, so basically 1980. What really got me into this industry, though, I’d say, was getting a job at a big premier coin company early on. I didn’t know much about the business side of things, but I just learned from them and moved on from there.”
With nearly 40 years of experience, Frese has no shortage of advice for those interested in diving into the nuanced world of numismatics.
“I never really promote (coins) as an investment,” Frese said. “Although coins do well over time, as a collector, you buy the coins because you like them. You buy them to add to your collection.”
Frese said the historical significance of coins should play an important factor in building a collection. He holds an 1866 Shield Two-Cent piece as a point of reference. While it was one of the shortest-lived and least successful coins in U.S. history, it was the first U.S. coin produced with the “In God We Trust” motto on it that was first displayed in 1864.
“It still gives me chills thinking about it,” Frese said. “I’m a coin nerd, but that is history. The historical significance just adds so much more to it. My advice to a young collector or someone just starting out is to pick something you like and then just study the hell out of it.”
Colorado’s decorated seat at the table
It’s no coincidence that Frese, Sandoval, and the Hallenbecks all converged on Orlando during the first full week of January.
Numismatic enthusiasts from all across the globe and from all walks of life congregate every January at Orange Convention Center in Orlando for this mega coin show and auction that takes up the entire Orange County Convention Center.
This year marked the 70th year of the FUN Show. It featured approximately 600 dealer booths, an exhibit area, 14 educational programs, competitive exhibits and, of course, Heritage Auctions for high-dollar coins.
To put the show and the numismatic industry into perspective, the most expensive coin at the event — a 1927-D Saint Gaudens Double Eagle MS65+ PCGS — went for over $3.8 million.
“You’ll never be in a place with more money in your life,” one reveler said at the show.
Tom Hallenbeck added, “This is the big U.S. show. What makes it unique is that there really hasn’t been a show since November because of the holidays. It’s the show that helps set the barometer for the upcoming year.”
Sandoval echoed similar sentiments, saying that Orlando’s FUN Show will be the largest one Erie Gold and Silver will do this year. Still, Sandoval — a senior numismatist — was quick to add that Colorado, in terms of historical significance, more than holds its own among U.S. states.
“Colorado’s presence is pretty strong,” Sandoval said. “We are prominent in the coin world.”
Starting with the Gold Rush
The reasons for Colorado’s decorated seat at the table are numerous, but the biggest one dates back over 150 years to the Colorado Gold Rush.
Soon after the Colorado Gold Rush began in 1859, brothers Austin and Milton Clark, along with their friend Emanual Gruber, opened a private mint in Denver aptly named Clark, Gruber & Co. Though the mint only produced coins in 1860 and 1861 before closing operations in 1862, the coins produced by Clark, Gruber & Co. contained more gold than their federal counterparts.
It has been noted that the mint processed more than $2,000 in gold daily between 1860 and 1861, thus producing more than $3 million in coinage. The coins became a dominant currency in the western part of the U.S. It is said that only around a thousand Clark, Gruber & Co. coins still exist, making them highly sought-after commodities in the numismatic world.
“They essentially processed gold and turned it into gold coinage,” Frese said. “Denver proper would not be Denver had it not been for the Clark and Gruber boys.”
Of course, once the federal government got wind of the success a private mint was having with its coinage, they intervened. Clark, Gruber & Co. was bought out of the coinage game in early 1863, paving the way for the federal government to open the Denver Mint and an assay office from the grounds where Clark, Gruber & Co. operated on the corner of 16th and Market.
The Denver Mint operated as an assay office, testing the purity of precious metals like gold and silver, from 1863 to 1895 before Congress authorized the Denver Mint to start making coins in 1895. Coin production did not start until 1906. The federal facility moved to its present-day location in 1904 — at Colfax Avenue and Cherokee Street, where it still produces coins.
In addition to the historical significance of Clark, Gruber & Co. and the Denver Mint, the American Numismatic Association headquarters and the Edward C. Rochette Money Museum are located in Colorado Springs.
“We’re within walking distance to both,” Hannah Hallenbeck said of the Colorado Springs coin landmarks. “We get a lot of traffic, especially during the summer with the Springs Coin Show sandwiched in between two week-long summer seminars. It works out well because a lot of attendees will want to stop by our gallery to look at our inventory and even apply some of what they are learning.”
The really cool era
In Erie, Sandoval says Colorado coin history is prevalent throughout the town.
“There was a lot of big mining in Erie during the gold rush,” Sandoval said. “If you go to downtown Erie, you’ll see Gruber Street and the Clark and Gruber Mini Mint Building and a few other markers from the era which is really cool.”
Meanwhile, back in Fort Collins at the Corner Coin and Jewelry, it is noted that the 1930s vintage Brandt Coin Sorter and Counter is not firing out coins on this particular day.
Grace Kuch, though, quickly quells any concerns.
“My grandfather just took it apart to clean,” she says. “It will be back to running tomorrow for sure. It’s kind of his baby.”
Grace then takes a moment to reflect on the opportunity she has to work alongside her father and grandfather.
“Working with my family is a real cool piece of working in this industry,” Grace said. “‘I’m an only child, so I’ve always been connected to them. We do a lot together. We try not to discuss work too much outside of work, but when we have a super busy day we’ll celebrate by going to a steak dinner and talk about the day. We just had one the other night.”
But what’s not to talk about?
They’re family after all.
