Monessen resident Dave Burdis still remembers the day his father, a bank teller, brought home a half dime coin from work.
Burdis, now 74, was just 9 at the time.
“I was amazed at it. I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “A half dime? What is that? So I researched it.”
Half dimes are no longer accepted currency, but they were minted in the late 1700s until the 1870s. The value was, as the name suggests, 5 cents.
He was hooked. Today, about 100 albums in Burdis’ home display the multitude of coins he has collected over the years — nearly “any kind of coin you could think of,” he said.
Burdis is a 40-year member of the South Hills Coin Club, a collectors group that formed about 1960.
The club held its annual show Saturday, drawing hundreds of coin fanatics to the Crowne Plaza Hotel & Suites in Bethel Park.
Collectors scouted for the final piece to complete their sets, and coin dealers lugged heavy cases of currency into the hotel meeting room — some coins selling for several hundred dollars each.
Collectors capitalize on gold, silver price spike
But James Bucci of Pittsburgh has noticed a rise in the number of people looking to purchase gold and silver coins in light of recent spikes in precious metal prices.
Gold prices in late January jumped 2.1%, briefly setting a record with a value more than $5,100-per-ounce, according to the Associated Press. Silver prices surged 14%.
Bucci has been collecting coins for more than 60 years but has never seen a more volatile market for precious metals than in the past five months.
“Last time we ran into this was in 1980,” he said. “The price of silver jumped up to $50 an ounce. Everybody was giving their class rings. They were trading everything in.
“Right now, we have a big boom because it went all the way up to $120 an ounce, then jumped down to $77 an ounce. It’s like … a roller coaster.”
Bucci doesn’t care much for the rise in silver and gold prices. He prefers to collect and sell ancient coins — currency issued in Greek, Roman and Persian cultures from around 650 B.C. to 480 A.D.
The coins spread across his table at the show ranged from $17 to $700.
Coin dealer says penny ‘will never be rare’
A dish sitting on a table right outside the entrance to the show called for attendees to donate their pennies. Production for the one-cent coin ended Nov. 12.
That’s why Apollo resident Josh Krentz decided to introduce his 7-year-old son, Zephyr, to the world of coin collecting by helping him gather the copper currency.
“We’re trying to get him involved with the pennies a little bit before they’re all gone,” said Krentz, 37, who has collected coins since the early 2000s.
In December, a three-coin set of 2025 pennies — from the final batch minted — sold at auction for $800,000. Another set sold for $180,000.
Most 2025 pennies, according to Bucci, now sell for $15.
But coin dealer Tom Miller is doubtful the penny will amass great value in future years.
“There’s so many pennies out there that they’ll never be rare,” he said.
Miller, 83, traveled to Western Pennsylvania from Clarence, N.Y. He started a coin business, Key Koins, after retiring from his job as an aeronautical engineer in 2012.
Despite being a retiree, Miller works 40 to 50 hours per week at the coin business based out of his home. He buys new collections once or twice a week and travels to coin shows about 30 times per year.
The New York native focuses on collecting and selling high-value coins. But he isn’t bothered by people looking to melt and sell the precious metals.
“It’s a shame in a sense because some of the older coins are pretty — nice designs — and they end up getting melted,” he said. “But it’s no different than melting a silverware set. People have old silverware sets with platters. They’re very ornate, and they get melted because younger generation folks don’t want that stuff.”
That doesn’t stop Krentz from trying to pass along his hobby to his 7-year-old son. Saturday was the first time Krentz brought his son and wife, Cheryl, with him to a coin show.
“Who’s owned that coin and held that coin?” he said, observing a case of dimes, pennies and silver dollars. “We don’t know, and we’ll never know. But the story of that coin might happen to be amazing.”