Coins We Love: Coins and Politics - A Match Made Where?
As Wes told me in a conversation regarding coins and the world around us on the way home yesterday, “I have no interest in the politics. I just want to play and study the coins.”
I mentioned that it’s not always that easy, but we can certainly try to avoid them! Unfortunately, in the world of US coins, numismatics often mixes with politics. Whether it’s a new mint director, the new issues that are designed and produced, and tax exemptions on sales of coins, or things within organizations and relationships with vendors, but that’s a whole different subject that is probably not ideal for today.
As you may have heard, we do have a new mint director who has been nominated. His name is Paul Hollis, and he’s a friend of many coin dealers, as he was one at some point in his life and he’s stayed relatively close to the hobby over the years, serving for many years on the board of the National Coin and Bullion Association. We’re hoping to see that get pushed along in the next few months, but perhaps that’ll happen early next calendar year.
A little closer to home, we’ve volunteered to offer ourselves as a glutton for punishment to pursue a renewal of the Virginia sales tax exemption on coins and bullion. While it’s a state issue that we’ve dealt with before, the political climate is a bit tougher for the renewal, and we’re trying hard to get this renewed for 2026. Unfortunately, these battles happen in every state as the fight for revenue is continual. However, roughly 46 states currently have some type of sales tax exemption on coins or bullion, so it seems like something that most states would understand in the big picture. Having a coin sales tax exemption creates business and jobs in their state, and I guarantee that the revenue created by these ventures oversteps what the state receives in sales tax revenues on a regular basis. But two of the things that bother me most about sales tax on coins are this:
- It’s one of the only items that you may have a sales tax and a capital gains tax charged on (doesn’t seem to work for cars or office equipment for some reason!)
- The largest coin dealer in the world does not charge sales tax. Can you name who that is? It’s the US Mint. Interesting how that works, isn’t it?
Anyhow, we’ll keep leading the charge for this exemption in the state of Virginia, and hopefully, we’ll get a 3 or 5-year renewal for the issue. We’ll report more on this as things progress!
What’s new here at DLRC? Well, the deals keep flying in! Andy and JC hit the road first thing Monday morning to pick up a collection in NC that was Morgan Dollar heavy, we picked up a deal in Northern Atlanta yesterday (via a friend of ours – thanks, Carter!), and we continue to have new coins coming in via the mail constantly right now. Overall, it’s been a hectic (but fun!) week. And next week has its own unexpected events unfolding as we speak. So, we’ll keep moving forward, hopefully finding a few more treasures and not letting politics get in our way too much (or Wes might protest!).
Numismatically Yours,
John Brush and Your Friends at DLRC
P.S.: We have started adding videos to select coins! We mentioned a few below, so make sure you take a look! And, if you have your eye on a coin and want us to take a video of it for you, please reach out.
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