Every business is unique, and Hallenbeck Coin Gallery is nothing short of that. Taking us into the world of coin dealership, Tom Hallenbeck talks about the processes within their business and how they are coping with the changes. Marrying the past and the present, Tom takes us back to the time he was growing up as a coin collector to managing a full-service coin dealership in this changing time where everything is online. He identifies the three types of collectors out there and gets into the management side of the business – from fostering innovation to taking a creative approach to driving motivation. Finally, Tom reflects on his role as an entrepreneur, breaking down the misconceptions about the coin dealing.

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Managing A Coin Dealership Business In A Changing World with Tom Hallenbeck

I’m Tom Hallenbeck with https://www.hallenbeckcoingallery.com/ (Hallenbeck Coin Gallery). I serve the Colorado Springs Community as a coin dealer, but also we do estate appraisals. We deal with elder law attorneys. We buy and sell scrap gold and silver. We’re much more than a coin dealer.

Tom, I appreciate you taking time. We have Tom Hallenbeck. He’s the President of Hallenbeck Coin Gallery. Tell us about your business and who you serve?

We’ve been in business for many years. We serve the Colorado Springs Community and throughout the region of the Rocky Mountains. We buy and sell coins and precious metals. We also do estates. The average person we buy from, normally the majority of our advertising is geared toward purchasing. We buy mainly from men and women who have estates or collections they’ve either accumulated or inherited that they want to fairly liquidate.

I’ve driven past this place. I’ve lived in Colorado Springs forever. You think about, “It’s a coin shop.” That’s what’s in my mind. When you talk about serving the community and the estate planning side, what does that look like?

With a lot of estates, somebody inherits a collection whether it’s through a father or grandfather. Usually, it’s the male side of the family. They are collectors more so than women typically. When they get it, they’re like, “What do we do with this thing?” We will go through from pennies, nickels, dimes, all the way through silver dollars, gold coins, value each item and then give it to the estate. We do two types of appraisals. One is the retail or replacement cost. That’s for insurance purposes. Sometimes insurance companies need an appraisal or the person in charge of the estate or the collection needs an appraisal in case a Waldo Canyon fire came through and burned their house down. If there was a robbery, more likely a theft so they need a value for replacement cost. Probably the vast majority of our appraisals are what we call “Fair wholesale appraisers.” What would you get if you were selling that $20 gold piece, your Krugerrand, your set of Lincoln cents? We’d go through that appraisal also.

For a lot of the folks, I don’t think as they look at the front of your building they have an idea of the number of people here. For leadership, the marketing and how you get everybody motivated in a sales process, let’s talk a little bit about it. When you first started, how many people were here?

It started with just my father. We moved to Colorado. He was a curator at the https://www.money.org/ (American Numismatic Association), which is the world’s largest coin club and they have a fantastic museum over there. If you’re a coin collector, that’s a thrill of a lifetime. You get to play like a kid in the candy store. That’s why he moved to Colorado. He got laid off in a mass layoff with the Numismatic Association in 1983.