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Joe Levine/Presidential Coin & Antique Company - going out of business
JBK
Posts: 17,483 ✭✭✭✭✭
I just got the email. 
I know of Joe Levine as a log time dealer and expert in Inaugural medals.
Inventory sell-off is going on now.
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do you have any links or more information??
Joe Levine had proven to be a helpful source for me. sadly, I only came to know him for the last 10-12 years. I found him to be not obly knowledgeable but a good catalogues and helpful with questions. I guess we all knew this was coming since he's had health problems for the past several years that had really stifled his business.
That is sad. In business for a long time, probably 50 years. Do you have a link to the inventory? He always had great stuff.
Dead Cat Waltz Exonumia
"Coin collecting for outcasts..."
:'(
One less exonumia dealer. 😞
Joe was one of the best for the better part of 50 years at least. 👍🏻
ANA LM
USAF Retired — 34 years of active military service! 🇺🇸
I saw this posted on his facebook page:
"We are in the process of going out of business. We have some very large specialized inventories particularly in the field of Presidential items such as
Inaugural medals and police badges and Presidential Xmas cards.
We are very motivated sellers and solicit your want lists. We do not have detailed comprehensive inventories of our own, but are in a position to offer you specific prices on your wants. Feel free to contact us by e-mail (Jlevine968@aol.com) or by phone 571-321-2121
Joe Levine"
Best wishes to them in there future endeavors what ever that is
Thx for posting. That is the text of the email I received.
I emailed him on an item and he got back to me very quickly.
These are scary times with 40 Million Americans out of a job. Glad we can comfort and maybe help some out there.
I wanted to add that he was always a stand up guy.
Once I had a minor complaint about an Inaugural medal I received. He immediately shipped a replacement out at his own expense and also included a check to cover return postage of the "defective" medal. I ended up keeping both medals and I sent him payment for the second one and I also returned his check uncashed.
Sorry to hear we are losing another great source of material. His reputation is sterling (as noted in comments above). I wish him well... Cheers, RickO
I saw an exhibit of Thomas Elder medals at the 1976 ANA in NY and started collecting them. I got my first 11 pieces from Hank Spangenberger and much of the rest from Joe. I would lid bid $100 on anything I did not have and get it at the next bid over the underbidder. Joe never did me wrong.
Terrific dealer, always honest and fair. His wife told me his parents wanted him to be a lawyer, but he was drawn to coins from a young age. The paths not chosen......I'm glad he chose his own.
Tom
You can say that again. I about a medal from him in one of his auctions that was supposed to be a 19th century product. About five years later I learned that it really a modern medal that had been treated. He gave me a refund, no questions asked.
I sent him my "wish list," but unfortunately none of those pieces were in his inventory.
Always a pleasure to talk to... Extremely knowledgeable and helpful. I suspect he just may want to retire... And that there could be a possible buyer for the company to just keep it intact and going... Sad
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Something unusual and rare that Levine would appreciate
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
I’ve gotten many nice things from Joe’s auctions over the years. I had been wondering if he’d ever have another.
Best wishes to him.
bought a handful or two of items from his catalogs over the years. The catalogs were always a fun read too!
Joe has been a colleague, a mentor in some ways and good friend for 40+ years -- in fact after some trial and error I ended up modeling my former mail auctions on his sales. We split some consignments and he sent others my way as well. He was always available for an identification or valuation when I was drawing a blank.
-- He ran his auctions in conjunction with the pre-Whitman Baltimore show for a number of years, first twice yearly then yearly later on. The floor sales were always fun and the after-auction wet analysis at the old Oriole Lounge in the Hyatt was always a highlight of the weekend.
-- After he retired his live auctions and glossy catalogs he sent short email price lists of quality material (at least 159 of them) to his mailing list. I purchased numerous items including some outstanding counterstamps off of these lists.
-- A visit to his long time storefront on Little River Turnpike in Alexandria, VA was always on the must-do list when visiting the District -- coins & exonumia in the front, antiques & silver stuff in the back.
-- After he closed the shop he moved to the countryside and became a country gentleman of sorts while still keeping a hand and two feet in the business.
-- Way back when he did get his law degree and taught for a time before heading full time into numismatics.
-- His auction catalogs are a great resource and are available and searchable on the Newman Portal. His long run of catalogs are one of the few hard copy sets I have kept.
-- I knew that some of his computerized research databases were available so shrinking the inventory does not come as a surprise. Joe is one of the really good guys.
So sorry to hear this. Thanks to Joe for so capably presenting interesting material for a long period of time. Bought quite a few things out of his sales.
With Joe Levine retiring from his business, does anyone know another dealer or auction house that specializes in Presidential Inaugural medals? I have someone with a very extensive collection looking to sell through the right outlet. Thanks in advance for your help.
Most of them seem to go through Stacks. But really there are only a few that have enough value to go to auction.
I think @BillJones knows about inaugural medals.
P.S. - It's nice to be reminded about Joe Levine - a great dealer - but the thread is five years old and since then Joe has "retired" from everything. 😥
I used to visit Joe’s store in Alexandria Virginia, as I lived about one block away. He was always very pleasant, even though my numismatic interests lay elsewhere.
He shared his store with another Joe, Joe Gallo, who dealt in more traditional material. It was in this venue that I rekindled my interest in coin collecting in 1972, and began to collect meaningful pieces. But, that’s another story for a later time.
this question would get a lot more interaction if it were its own thread "best venue for selling presidential inaugural material?" would be a good start
There is only one inaugural medal left which I would like to have, the Harding medal, which is the toughest one of all. I don’t know of any “go to” dealers for inaugural medals. The big ones I purchased, the 1905 Theodore Roosevelt by St. Gaudens and the Calvin Coolidge, at auction.
I spent a LOT of time in Joe Gallos basement shop at his last stop in the Annandale antiques building.
Bought some truly first class material from him over the years. Always raw. I was hunting an XF/AU 1909 o Barber quarter for over 3 years when a guy walks in one Friday with literally a shoebox full of coins (Joe was only open Fridays and Saturdays and he’d open up around 11 each Friday IIRC).
Joe parsed through his box in around 5 minutes, pays the guy in cash, and then calls me over to the counter as he’s putting a full LIBERTY raw 09-0 into a cardboard 2x2 flip. “I think you’ve been looking for one of these……”
I paid him $1000 for it and about 2 weeks later it was a PCGS XF-45. This was in 2014/5 I think and the cat was out of the bag about the 09o (you could still buy graded VFs for under $300 as late as early teens)I think at the time it was the 7th or 8th XF that the TPGs had graded.
I sold it to Liz Coggins for $2200 in Baltimore a couple of years later after I liquidated the vast majority of my collection. A move I thought was responsible at the time (had just had kid number 1 and wanted to seed a college fund and cushion our financial situation at the time) but since regret not hanging on to some of the more scarce and esoteric coins that took me a long time to chase down. Haven’t seen that coin up for 100% certain since, although I think it’s now in an NGC 50 holder.
Apologies for the trip down memory lane. I only knew Joe during the last 4-5 years of his very long career as a dealer. He always treated me really well and I personally had a lot of respect for him.
I had bought a few things from him over the years. His website for information was VERY useful. I really collected these when my dad started collecting them years ago. They have really fallen out of favor. I never had any silver ones before Eisenhower and only a couple of bronze before Truman.
I keep my both silver Eisenhower but just scrapped all the silver ones after him. Plus my collection of sterling inaugural plates. It really pained me to do it but all they bring is silver now. Very painful watching the seven Kennedy ones going into the bucket.