Why trust us

Forty years of a clean sheet

We were BBB accredited in 1984 — barely two years after opening — and have held an A+ rating ever since. In this trade, four decades without the rating slipping is not a marketing claim. It's an absence of complaints, sustained across two generations and forty-plus employees.

In 2012 the Better Business Bureau gave us their Torch Award for Ethics — an award that honours businesses for integrity in both operations and character, judged on how you treat customers, employees and vendors. Blair Looney of the BBB put it plainly: "We are proud to recognize Fresno Coin Gallery for their continued commitment to quality, ethics and outstanding customer service."

Licensed, and logged

We're a licensed California pawnbroker at all three locations. Every transaction is recorded and ID is required — that's the law, and it's also why a licensed shop is a genuinely safe room to bring an estate into.

• North Fresno · Blackstone — Licence No. 1005-0980
• Downtown Fresno · Tulare St — Licence No. 1005-0978
• Visalia · S Mooney Blvd — Licence No. 5407-0988

Credentialed on the things that need it

• PCGS and NGC authorized dealer — so a coin's grade is an independent fact, not our opinion
• GIA certified diamond expert on staff — Philip Foster, who runs The Showroom
• Master jeweler with 40+ years and GIA instruction — Richard Cervantes, at our own bench
• ANA member on the coin counter — Mark Fischer, nearly 30 years dealing

Steve Jr. works on the industry itself

He sits on the Board of Directors of the California Pawnbrokers Association, the Fresno Numismatic Society, and the Foundation at Fresno County Office of Education — the first of those explicitly to raise the professionalism and image of the pawnbroker industry.

You don't take that job if your own counter can't stand inspection.

The test that actually matters

Ratings are lagging indicators. Here's a leading one: we tell people not to sell to us. If a coin should be certified first, or belongs at auction, or a ring is worth more intact than melted — we say so, out loud, before the money moves.

Walt Ankerman is a professional coin dealer who drives hundreds of miles to work this counter twelve times a year. Professionals don't do that with a shop that shades people. That's the review that counts.

And we're here on Monday

The hotel-ballroom gold buyer leaves town on Sunday. The website that bought your bullion may stop answering the phone. We've been on Blackstone since 1982, our name is on the building, and the family who owns it is standing behind the counter.