The Bottom Line
Pros
- L&C has excellent customer service.
- I was charged a below-cost shipping fee.
- My order was customized to my liking.
- L&C packed the coins very well for shipping.
- My order was sent out immediately.
Cons
- L&C's prices are definitely not wholesale, as they claim.
- Be careful buying group lots - they might be lower-quality than you'd hoped.
Description
- L&C Coins is owned by numismatist Lee Crane, and is located in Los Alamitos, CA. They've been in business 35+ years.
- Lee Crane is a member of the ANA and is therefore subject to their Dealer Code of Ethics.
- L&C advertises that they sell "below wholesale," but most of their lots are really retail-priced (using the CDN ask prices).
- L&C offers a 15-day return policy, an option I elected not to exercise for the RPM's, but this guarantee is important.
Guide Review - L&C Coins - Coin Dealer Review
I have noticed L&C's ads in Coin World and Numismatic News for awhile now. They tell a story about the employees "tripping over boxes of inventory on their way to the cappuccino machine," and the lots listed in the ads change somewhat from month to month. When I saw a lot of 200 Lincoln Cent RPM's advertised for $99 (about 50 cents each), I thought it was a good price. I had also seen the lot of BU Jefferson Nickels they were touting, 25 rolls for $175, with the ad copy claiming that, "knowing a brief history of these rolls, it is almost certain that they have never been search (sic) for any reason."
I called on a Friday to place an order for these two lots, but I was a bit skittish about the nickel lot. The range of dates given was 1950's through 80's, with a guarantee of at least 10 different dates. I've bought lots like this before from other dealers and most of the coins would be in the 80's, so I asked the lady who answered the phone at L&C what percentage of the mix was 80's. She consulted with a man in the background, and said, "He won't give you any 80's if that's what you want." I was sold! I gave my credit card number and asked what the total would be, and when they would be shipped. She said the shipping was $4, and the coins would probably go out by Monday or Tuesday.
In fact, I got the coins on Monday, and they were packaged for transit very well overall, although they should have taped the square nickel tube-tops because four of them came open and a few nickels got loose inside the special nickel box. There were actually 26 rolls of BU nickels, with no 80's dates, but the RPM's were disappointing. 95% of them are so minor that I can't see any evidence of a repunch under a 10x loupe, but under 20x there are the faintest little dots that are cataloged as extremely minor RPMs by CopperCoins.com, such as 1960D-1MM-103.
