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Fire causes $20,000 damage to Canadian coin shop

Fire Causes $20k in Damage to Couple's Coin and Stamp Shop

By Dana Brown
The Hamilton Spectator
(Oct 7, 2006)
It was the middle of the night when Tom and Tina Pellegrini got a call that the alarm was going off at the Coin and Stamp Hut, the business they have owned for 22 years.

When the couple arrived at the King Street East store around 4 a.m. yesterday, they found a smoky mess that was slowly eating through part of their collectible stock.

"When we opened the front door, there was just black smoke everywhere," said Tina.

The fire department put out the blaze within minutes, she said. She is thankful firefighters did not douse the store with water. Tom estimates the pair can recoup a good part of their stock, which has millions of items.

"I started with nothing," he said. "I can save three-quarters of the stuff in here. I can start again."

Family members joined the couple in packing up the shop yesterday, which mainly carried collectible coins, stamps and sports cards, including some items that were centuries old.

A small box of melted coins, along with other remnants from the store, sat on a table by the entranceway of the shop ready to be cleared away into cardboard boxes and garbage bags.

"It's our whole life in this store," Tina said.

Fire officials estimate damage to the building and contents of the shop to be around $20,000. A faulty extension cord is believed to be the cause.

The industry can be a tough one to be in, says one Hamilton appraiser and collectible store owner.

Ed Agopian, owner of Imperial Coin and Stamp Co., has been in the collectibles business for more than 40 years and says that in addition to many shops having a tough time getting insurance -- because premiums are so high and insurers require meticulously detailed inventory information -- there's just no way to replace damaged or missing items.

Imperial was robbed in January and lost more than $300,000 in stock.

"Once the stock's gone, the stock's gone. It's over," Agopian said. "You can't replace it. You need real money to buy it."

The Pellegrinis did have insurance on the Coin and Stamp Hut.

Agopian, whose inventory includes coins, stamps, sports cards and comic books, said Imperial takes steps to protect its most valuable stock -- which can run-up to $10,000 an item -- by locking it in a safe.

"Sports cards can run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars," he said.

A coin can be even more valuable. A 1911 Canadian silver dollar can fetch more than half a million dollars.

Comments

  • cladkingcladking Posts: 28,701 ✭✭✭✭✭
    There are quite a few coin shop fires. It seems every couple years there's
    one somewhere. I believe Tom Pellegrini advertised in the papers for several
    years before he opened the shop but I may have the name confused.

    Tempus fugit.
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