As a numismatist since my teen years, one of my rituals is to try making it to the Annual USMex Convention, a large coin show held in Scottsdale, Arizona, each October. It was there, just last year, that a prominent dealer and good friend of mine opined, in so many words, “What we do doesn’t matter. It’s coins. It’s not like we are saving the world.” I have thoughts on that…
I have worked as a full-time professional grader for over 20 years. During that time, I’ve seen the other side of the coin: the worst pieces, heard the worst stories, seen people taken for countless sums of money. For me it isn’t about saving the world, it’s about integrity. That is why I get up every day and strive to do better. For me, working with top numismatists and elite graders isn’t about saving the world – it’s about serving others with integrity. And it’s been my driving passion for many years.
I inherited this hobby at the age of 13. My uncle passed away and left my brother and me his coin collection. Most of the coins were silver removed from circulation after 1965. However, seeing pieces previously unknown to me, such as Mercury Dimes, Standing Liberty Quarters, Walking Liberty and Franklin Half Dollars, and even a Flying Eagle Cent was thrilling. My father took me to get a copy of A Guide Book of United States Coins (widely known as “The Red Book”), and I sat down to sort this treasure.
For about a year, my father joined me in collecting coins – until I discovered he had bought a counterfeit gold dollar coin. When I pointed it out to him, he tried to return it to the dealer where he was brusquely told “tough luck,” and he quit collecting altogether. I carry this lesson to this day: one mistake or one bad coin can end a lifetime of collecting.
As I sold duplicates from my collection, I reinvested the money into acquiring new coins. I was fortunate to grow up in the San Fernando Valley of California, where several coin shops were within my easy reach. One such shop, Mid-Valley Coin Company, held a weekly bid board that offered 810 items from both inventory and consignment. Each auction closed on Friday night, sometimes drawing over 50 collectors and dealers. It was there that I first learned about coin varieties and was introduced to world coins.
In 1998, I joined a new ecommerce website called eBay. It was revolutionary for coins, allowing individuals to sell them to a worldwide market. I quickly capitalized on this opportunity as a part-time job while I was in high school. The shop soon took notice of my frequent buying and began consigning coins to me, and I eventually sold these pieces on eBay for them. For the next two years, I spent my Fridays and Saturdays working at the shop. I left when I left for college at University of California Santa Barbara. I spent the next four years working on a Bachelor’s of History degree and visiting the local shops when I could.
When I was preparing to graduate, I had several career paths ahead of me. I had been accepted to graduate school, law school, and business school, but none of them truly excited me. In 2004, when I attended the Long Beach Coin Show, I had considered coins as a possible career, though I wasn’t sure how to pursue it. At the show, I spoke with three grading services to ask what it would take to become a coin grader. One service had an employee who frequented the coin shop where I worked and provided me guidance. At the next Long Beach show, I test graded for a major coin grading company, and they hired me as a grader of modern coins. I was going to give it a shot, deciding that if grading didn’t work out, I would go back to school and explore another path.
Grading ultimately worked out for me. I relocated to Florida, where I spent 14 years working my way up the ranks. I was primarily involved in bulk submissions and eventually worked in many different areas, including grading modern and vintage coins, varieties, medals, tokens, and world coin attribution, census and data entry, registry management, and even became a grade finalizer for world coin submissions.
I worked with many good people, some of whom I am still great friends with today. However, people and places changed, and I was ready to embark on the next chapter of my career. In 2017, while attending the Beijing Coin Show, I met Don Willis, who was serving as president of PCGS at the time. I was offered a position with PCGS as a full-time world coin grader. Becoming a PCGS grader was always my dream job. I accepted the offer and returned to California in 2017.
The amount of work at PCGS was much greater than what I had been used to, but the exceptionalism and professionalism of the team created a better environment for support and learning. Part of my agreement included international travel to serve the PCGS international offices. From 2017 until the end of 2019, I traveled to Shanghai and Hong Kong 10 times a year and Paris twice a year to grade internationally.
International travel was greatly limited amid the COVID pandemic in 2020, and the backlog of submissions at PCGS was so great that we couldn’t even keep up with domestic demand. Over time, PCGS caught up on the backlog and travel restrictions were lifted. In February 2024, onsite operations at the PCGS office in Paris resumed, and since then I have worked at every onsite grading event there.
While I have given numerous lectures on numismatics and written hundreds of articles, it was in 2023 that I was contacted by the American Numismatic Association (ANA) and invited to teach at their Summer Seminar, a popular academic and lecture program delivered each year at the organization’s headquarters in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In 2024, the first class I gave – alongside my fellow PCGS grader Dylan Dominguez – exclusively focused on world coin grading. We repeated the class in 2025 and plan to offer more in 2026 and beyond.
In delivering educational lectures, writing articles, and reaching out to the numismatic community, it’s my hope that someone discovers something new and is inspired to pursue the hobby. I still get excited finding a new piece for the collection or even getting a Lincoln Wheat Cent in change. That thrill of the hunt keeps me passionate about coins and motivates me to continue learning – both to do a better job and to write something that inspires others to enjoy numismatics.
As we continue celebrating PCGS’s 40th anniversary in 2026, it is hard to believe I have already been at PCGS for more than eight years. While PCGS has always been considered the premier service for United States coins, it is the people who help attain and maintain that prestigious reputation. When I first met PCGS Director of World Grading Mike Sargent, he told me that he believes that in order to do this job you need to have passionate collectors at the helm. This might be one of the keys to the success of PCGS. Without that passion, without that self-interest of being the end buyer, you aren’t going to care enough to assign the correct grade, catch the counterfeits, and correct attributions. It was this mentality that I understand: I don’t save the world, but I work to improve every day, uphold the highest integrity, and make it a little better for numismatics.