Coast Life: Coin collector turns hobby into unique business

BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) – If your Coast Life includes looking for hard-to-find and valuable collectibles, there’s a spot in Biloxi for you where coins are the main attraction.

“We have coins from the late 1700s that we can’t say for a fact never were in George Washington’s pocket, we don’t know, they could have been because they were around when he was,” Norman Carnovale said.

From the revolutionary era to a German coin from four centuries ago, Norman Carnovale has it. His appetite for coin collecting goes back to his grandmother’s house when he was a small child.

“She used to just spread out pennies on the floor, give me little blue books and I would find pennies to go in there. That’s what got me started,” Carnovale said.

Carnovale built his collection while working around the country. Then after moving back to the Coast in 2012, he made his hobby his business.

“There came a time when I realized I had more than a lot of dealers who were at shows, and I felt like I was doing better than they were,” Carnovale said. “It was always sort of a dream to have a shop.”

Now at The Coin Shop, the price of the currency Carnovale buys and sells doesn’t always come down to how old the coins are, but the rarity.

“Age is of a certain value, but it’s of less value than people think. It could be a Roman coin that’s only worth $5 because 5,000 different hoards of that coin have been found, that makes the supply high, there’s not that big of a demand for it, so that makes the price low. What makes a coin rare is the inability to find it. If you’re building a date set, then there would be certain dates that would be hard to find, the value on those is going to be higher.”

As a natural collector, parting ways with some of those valuables isn’t always easy.

“One of the first things I’m tempted to do is put it in the safe for a little while and leave it in there, as opposed to putting it out. That’s not the way I do it, it’s just a temptation.”

Along with the coins, Carnovale also sells sports cards, making his shop the only one of its kind in the region. Learning the art of collectibles can provide lessons including how to evaluate, price, and negotiate buying and selling.

“If you teach your kids how to do this and help them do it, they grow up to be better people, because those are all skills you need as an adult.”

Carnovale will continue using his coins to teach those lessons and learn a few lessons of his own while keeping the Coin Shop open.

“I don’t see stopping. I don’t see any reason to need to, too many people are happy, I think I would be letting them down.”

Along with working in his store every day, Carnovale gets together with other coin lovers in a club that meets every two weeks.

If you’re into coin collecting or want to learn more about it, the Coast Coliseum Convention Center is hosting the Mississippi Numismatic Association Coin Show later this week. It starts on Thursday and runs through Saturday.

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