Sell Your Ancient Coins in Southern Oregon
The above-featured Coin is From Lydia 7th Century BC and was among one of the first coins ever minted. J. Austin & Company recently sold this coin for a local estate.
As a college student, Mark Hutto, the grandson of J. Austin lived in Europe. While there he began a one year study of Medieval and ancient cultures at Joszef Attila University located in Southern Hungary. He also embarked upon a life long pursuit of understanding ancient artifacts and coins. Some of the items he discovered are available for viewing or for sale in the storefront.
J. Austin & Co purchases ancient coins from all time periods, this includes ancient Greek, Roman, Byzantine, and Medieval coins from both the Middle East and Europe.
J. Austin & Company is a coin dealer in Southern Oregon, and ancient Greek, Roman and Byzantine coins are part of what we buy.
Selling Ancient Coins: What We Look At
We buy ancient coins one at a time or by the tray: a single Greek silver coin, a run of Roman denarii, Byzantine gold or bronze, or a bag of corroded, uncleaned bronzes from an estate. Past Greece and Rome, we buy Judaean, Parthian and Sassanid coins and Chinese cash coins, and also the coinage that comes just after “ancient”: Islamic dinars and European coins from before 1500. If a piece turns out to be a modern copy, we’ll tell you plainly.
What changes what we can offer
- Who struck it, and where. Identifying the ruler, city or mint comes first. A worn coin whose inscription you can’t read can often still be identified from its style and weight.
- Surface and patina. The green or brown layer on an old bronze is part of the coin. Cleaning it off can leave a bronze worth little more than its metal, so please don’t clean anything.
- Whether it’s genuine. We authenticate each piece before we make an offer on it.
- Paperwork, for the better pieces. Old auction records and collection tags matter on high-value coins. For everyday ancients, having no paperwork doesn’t hurt the offer.
If a coin is already graded and sealed in a holder by NGC Ancients or a similar grading service, we can discuss it over the phone. A loose, ungraded coin we need to see in hand.
How an appointment works
Call to book. Both shops work by appointment and are usually booked, so we can’t promise time to walk-ins. Ashland: 1632 Ashland St., Tuesday through Friday, 10 am to 5 pm, (541) 482-3715. Grants Pass: by appointment, typically Mondays, (541) 955-2985.
Bring the coins as you have them, unsorted, in their flips, envelopes, box or tray, along with any notes or inventories a relative kept, and a photo ID. Allow 30 minutes or more for a sizable collection. There’s no fee for the evaluation.
Coming from Medford, Talent or Phoenix
There is no J. Austin shop in Medford. Medford sellers come to the Ashland shop, about 14 miles away; Phoenix and Talent are closer still. See selling from Medford.
Can’t come in?
Call (541) 482-3715 before you send anything. We don’t price loose ancients over the phone, so the call is about what you have and whether shipping makes sense. If it does, we can send you a shipping label. Old bronzes can be brittle, so we’ll go over packing on the call, along with how the offer works on mailed coins. More on selling by mail.
Ready to bring in your ancient coins?
Private appointments. Honest evaluations. Same-day offers.