L&C Coins - Coin Dealer Review

L&C Coins surprised me when I called. They offered to customize a Jefferson Nickel rolls lot, leaving out dates in the 80's when all I did was ask how "heavy" in 80's the lot would be. They charged me $4.00 shipping but their actual cost was $9.80, a refreshing change from coin dealers who add some of their profit into their inflated shipping charges. L&C sent my lot out the same day; I had it two mail days later! The nickels were about what I expected, but the Lincoln Cent RPM lot was a little disappointing. Most of the RPMs are so minor that I can't see them with a 10x loupe! Overall, I recommend L&C.

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.