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PIECE OF HISTORY: R&K Coins’ oldest relic is a 1787 Fugio cent.
PIECE OF HISTORY: R&K Coins’ oldest relic is a 1787 Fugio cent.

Business Spotlight: The Age of Currency

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Kelley Eddington turned a hobby into a hobby business.

Sitting at a large wooden desk in the back corner of his R&K Coins shop, the 62-year-old is surrounded by paperwork. Eddington’s brother Ron – the shop’s sole other employee – sits among a similar stack of paperwork on his side of the room. Collectible guns and prints hang on the walls around their desks, but the majority of the narrow shop’s space is filled with money – cases and cases of collectible coins and bills.

“It’s basically all U.S. currency,” Kelley Eddington says. “There’s some foreign in there, but only gold.”

Eddington says paper money must be dated before 1928 before he’ll even consider it, but the numismatic shop has coins dating back much further. The oldest originates around the creation of the U.S. Constitution, a 1787 Fugio cent.

The business became official in 2000, but Eddington got his start much earlier. Like many children, the R&K Coins owner had a small collection, but he drifted away from the hobby as a teen.

“Life happened,” says the 27-year veteran warehouse worker.

As Eddington grew in years, his fondness for the hobby returned. He started hanging around local coin shops.

“I bought a lot of junk one winter,” he says of his burgeoning hobby. “That was in 1999, and I started going to the I-44 Swap Meet.”

Equipped with eight 8-foot tables and 32 trays of coins, Eddington built his reputation in the local scene.

“I made a lot of money that summer and I thought this is my opportunity to do something different with my life,” he says. “My wife thought I’d lost my mind.”

As fall approached, Eddington couldn’t stand the thought of waiting for summer’s return to sell coins and set up shop in a local flea market on the corner of Campbell Avenue and Sunshine Street. Still working for Springfield Ice and Refrigerator Co. at the time – now part of Missouri State University’s Brick City – Eddington sold coins on the side Thursday through Sunday.

“By the end, I had 12 cabinets in there,” he says. “We used to get McDonald’s for lunch a lot, and I saw this place for rent next door. Rent was cheaper than the flea market, so I moved in 2003.”

Going full-time coin shop was a leap Mrs. Eddington wasn’t sure about at first.

“I told my wife, Ruby, I quit my job,” he says with a chuckle. “Then I told her I was naming the store R&K – Ruby and Kelley – and we were good to go after that.”

Fittingly so, R&K Coins only accepts cash – no credit cards – but changing times have forced the brothers to go digital. Roughly 20 percent of the shop’s business comes through eBay, selling on average 50 items a week. Eddington declined to disclose revenue but said the shop usually hits a 10 percent profit margin. Most coins in the shop are valued below $1,000, because Eddington says that’s the range his customers can afford.

“Why keep something very expensive sitting around in the case for years when I can use that space for other coins people will actually buy?” he says.

The shop’s biggest profit center is buying and selling gold and silver bullion. When he first opened, gold was $270 an ounce; now it goes for more than a grand. Changing daily, the price per ounce was $1,334.60 as of Sept. 27.

Aside from a shift to digital purchases, Eddington’s customer base also is changing and not for the better.

“The business is dying off. I bet I lose one or two good customers a year,” he says.

Eddington thinks kids are too distracted by social media to collect coins. American Numismatic Association President Jeff Garrett believes the hobby isn’t dying, but simply changing.

“There is no doubt we have an aging demographic,” he says, acknowledging the average member age is 60. “Working to attract young people is a battle, but efforts from organizations like the U.S. Mint and the Boy and Girl Scouts keep it going.”

The Colorado Springs, Colo.-based nonprofit currently has 25,000 members, and Garrett says it could be in for a boom.

“A lot of people collect when they are young, lose interest as a teen, then rediscover collecting later in life when they have more disposable income,” he says. “Well, 10,000 baby boomers retire a day. That’s a rich target for growth.”

As boomers vacation, it’s also a hobby that travels easily. Springfield collector Mike Shaller picked up coins on a recent trip to Rome and has toured the Denver and Philadelphia mints. Originally inheriting his collection from an uncle 30 years ago, he says it’s become a passion.

Shaller hunts for Morgan silver dollars. He’s visited R&K about two dozen times in the last few years.

“They know price is based on wear, and there is room for interpretation there,” he says. “It takes awhile, and I’ve spent $1,000 on one coin, but everybody wants that complete collection.”

As for Eddington, does he still collect coins?

“This is his collection,” brother Ron says of the shop.

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