O.C. Coin Dealer Sold to Auctioneer

Santa Ana coin dealer Spectrum Numismatics International is being purchased by a New Jersey auctioneer of collectibles and diamonds for $25 million in stock, the companies said Thursday.

Greg Manning Auctions Inc. will issue new shares of its stock to buy Spectrum, known in the industry for having the financial heft to make splashy deals. Manning also will assume an undisclosed amount of Spectrum debt.

Spectrum created a stir in the coin community in 1997 when it purchased 20,000 gold pieces, known as the Wells Fargo hoard, for $15 million, saying it would resell the coins for twice that amount.

Today, Spectrum’s inventory has a market value of about $20 million, said Greg Manning, chief executive of the New Jersey company.

Spectrum is projecting sales of $55 million this year, up 10% from 1998. Greg Manning Auctions posted sales of $39.6 million for the year ended June 30, a 76% jump over the year before.

The Spectrum acquisition will ensure the auctioneer’s access to quality coins for its rapidly growing Internet coin businesses while boosting its projected overall sales to more than $100 million next year, Manning said.

“In collectibles, product is extremely important,” Manning said. “Spectrum is known as one of the premier buyers of coins in the U.S.”

The Santa Ana company will continue operating as usual, and its seven employees will keep their jobs and titles, Manning said.

Spectrum President Greg Roberts said the parent company’s Internet distribution channels will expand sales for Spectrum, which will be the first wholesale coin business to become part of a publicly traded company. The auctioneer’s expanding involvement with the Internet will open coin collecting to a broader audience, Roberts said.

In July, Greg Manning Auctions partnered with Afinsa Bienes Tangibles S.A., a European collectibles company that specializes in stamps, fine art and coins, to establish GMAI-Europe.com Inc. Earlier this year, the auctioneer formed an online unit in Beijing.

“What they’re going to do is bring millions of new customers to our industry,” Roberts said. “We’ll be able to access those customers with our products.”

Richard Schwary, president of California Numismatic Investment in Inglewood, agreed that the union could have a positive impact on coin collecting.

“Greg Manning has huge capitalization,” he said. “The implications could be significant for the coin business in the sense that it opens another portal to public money.”

Spectrum sells to dealers, individual collectors and e-commerce companies. Its customers include small collectors and high-end clients. Its coins sell for $50 to $2 million.

In 1997, it paid $1.8 million for the 1804 Eliasberg silver dollar, then the highest price ever paid for one coin, and quickly resold it for almost $2 million, Roberts said.

Greg Manning Auctions, which has about 105 employees, auctions a wide range of collectibles and diamonds and contends it is the leading stamp auction house in the nation and one of the largest in the world. About 60% of its sales occur online.

It is also the first publicly owned auction company to hold real-time auctions simultaneously over the Internet and the telephone while providing the confidential transmission of bidder and seller information, the company said.

Roberts and Manning, who have known each other a couple of years, began talking about joining forces several months ago over dinner in New York, Roberts said.

“We were talking about ways we could work together to help each other’s businesses, and the idea came up that we could join forces,” he said.

The companies have similar origins.

Manning, 53, began collecting stamps at 7 and was advertising in trade journals by 15. He founded Greg Manning Auctions in 1966.