Coin Buyers Serving Princeton, NJ

For several months in 1783 the Continental Congress met in Nassau Hall, which made Princeton the nation's capital for that stretch. Six years earlier, in January 1777, Washington's army had beaten a British force on farm fields at the edge of town, ground that is now Princeton Battlefield State Park. The university was founded in 1746 as the College of New Jersey and moved into Nassau Hall in 1756.

The university has drawn scholars from around the world since the 1700s, and the Institute for Advanced Study, where Albert Einstein worked, added more. Faculty, researchers and their families have filled the houses near Nassau Street, Palmer Square and the western section of town for generations. They traveled, took posts overseas and came home with pocketfuls of foreign money.

World coins are a big part of what we see from Princeton. British sovereigns, which are 22K gold, Mexican 50 pesos holding 1.2057 troy ounces of gold, Canadian Maple Leafs and Chinese Pandas sit next to tins of foreign change from a dozen countries. Some households also have ancient Greek or Roman coins bought on a trip or inherited from a classicist in the family. We identify each piece by country, period, weight and fineness, and we say plainly which coins carry collector value and which sell for metal.

Princeton collectors tend to be careful. They bought coins already graded by PCGS or NGC, kept notes on what they paid, and stored everything in labeled boxes. Some also kept a shelf of coin books with penciled notes in the margins about where a coin came from. A graded coin is priced on its grade and on current collector demand, and we look at the coin through the slab as well as the label. Notes and receipts help us understand a collection, but the price is set by what the coin is and what collectors pay now.

Many of the calls we get from Princeton, West Windsor, Plainsboro, Lawrenceville and Hopewell come from heirs, some of whom live far away and need a clear picture before dividing an estate. The written, item-by-item offer gives every family member the same list. We meet by appointment only, at a place set privately when you book, and larger estates can ask about a home visit. If you decide not to sell, you keep everything and the list.