About This Site

Header

Our website Header contains the standard stuff you’d expect, including our logo (first doodled by your author during calculus class in high school). This logo is also a link to our home page, so if you ever need to go home, click it!

You’ll also find links to our social media sites on Facebook, Threads and Instagram. On Facebook we like to include information about new coins and activities that aren’t quite ready for prime time. We use Threads to provide up to the minute updates of our travel and show activities. Instagram is reserved for photos of interesting coins, some of which are not quite for this website and are for sale there – so you might want to check that out.

The search bar allows you to find anything on this website fast and easy.

Our horizontal menu bar contains drop down links to every page of this site, including the one you are currently reading, information about us, details of our policies, unsolicited customer testimonials and a page containing FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions). A lot of the email questions we receive are already answered right there.

Of special importance to us is the often-imitated-never-equaled CRO ‘Updated’ clock in the upper left corner. We started doing this waaaay back in 2006 for one reason: We update this site multiple times every single day and thought that was worth highlighting (since a lot of numismatic websites seem to be updated somewhere between once a week and never).

Finally, we will provide important information, show updates and our Early Bird schedule in a message bar which will appear as necessary at the very top of all pages on this site. So you might want to keep an eye out for that.

Home Page

Our Home Page contains a brief description of what we do here, super-detailed coin close ups illustrating buttons to 12 of the most popular sections of the site and details of our grading affiliations.

Features

The Road Report feature (the most popular section of the site based on the feedback we get) contains a vivid (or at least semi-vivid) description of what we saw, did, experienced, bid on, bought and/or sold on our travels. We like to think of this as a cross between an old Rare Coin Review and an article by Dave Barry.

Our Coin Commentary is kind of our ‘Op Ed’ piece where we get to say whatever we want. We hope you’ll find it interesting and/or thought provoking. If you disagree with what we say, email us and tell us why. If you write something really good, maybe we’ll go ahead and post that (with your permission, of course).

Our Ad Archive, was created based on input from our customers. Hey, we aim to give the people what they want, and they apparently wanted to see all of our old ads in one place. For those who want more, click on the ads themselves for some top-secret insights into the CRO creative process.

Finally, our Hat Attack section including photos of our customers all over the world adorned in CRO hats. When someone sent us the first such pic years ago we thought it was pretty neat, though we admit we never anticipated it would end up being a separate website section. Who knew?

Coins

We presume the primary reason people visit a coin website is to see the coins, and so we have done everything possible to make the presentation of Our Coins as interesting and easy to use as possible.

The selection of items is varied and contains things that you probably won’t see anywhere else. Who knows, maybe you’ll discover something interesting in a series or area that you hadn’t considered before.
We personally never enjoy hunting through search screens on dealer websites to find coins of potential interest, so we decided to put all of our inventory on one page so you can see it all without breaking a sweat or injuring yourself.
All coins are shown in our Showcase View presentation with a picture of every single coin on one page. See something of interest? Click on any coin and check out our Catalog View page with XL images and a detailed description.
Speaking of pictures, items on this site our photographed by us, in house, with our goal being to capture the most accurate, realistic images possible of the obverse, reverse and holder.
We endeavor to write the description of each item as it might have appeared in an old New Netherland’s or Bowers and Ruddy auction catalog. We relate meaningful information about the coins’ history and rarity, incorporating our own proprietary research where possible, in what we hope is an interesting and informative way. And you’ll note that we use exclamation points only when absolutely necessary.
Personally, we find “Price On Request” (POR) on other sites to be terribly off-putting, so we never do that.
If a coin is ordered by a customer but the deal has not been finalized yet, the coin will be marked HOLD. For a lay-a-way deal in which a customer is paying over time, you may see the HOLD sign showing for an extended period. Sometimes deals do not work out, though, and occasionally coins marked HOLD become available again – so if you see something you like it cannot hurt to inquire.
When a deal is done and a coin has been sold, it will say SOLD. We leave these up on the site for a couple of days just to ‘close the loop’.

Our Archive is where you get to see an ever-changing look at some of the more interesting and important items we’ve handled through the years. Though please note that none of these items are currently for sale. Items in this section were imaged by a variety of different photographers who have assisted us through the years, with the most recent additions done by us.

Early Bird

Every couple of weeks (always on Tuesdays at noon East Coast time) we send out our Early Bird Notification email. The Early Bird contains images and detailed descriptions of our newest 51 acquisitions before they are posted to our website.

If that sounds like something you’d like to see, just click the Early Bird button on our home page, follow the simple instructions and add your name to our list. Once your name is added, you will receive the next scheduled Early Bird Notification.

Many coins sell before they ever make it to our online inventory, so if you want first shot, we encourage you to sign up.

It’s free, it’s easy and there’s no obligation.

We Need Your Help!

This site exists for our customers, and it is our sincere desire to provide the content you want in a format that is as simple and easy to use as possible.

So if anyone ever has any suggestions for what we can do better, we sure would like to hear them.

John & MaryAnn