Littleton Coin Co.

Littleton helped to stoke my interest in coins as a kid. When I was 7 or so I saw one of their "5 V nickels for $2.50!" ads in a magazine and sent away with my pocket change for them. Somehow I got on a coins on approval mail order service where they would send me a few cheap coins, I would pick out the ones I wanted, and ship the rest back with payment for the ones I kept...being a child with maybe a $20/month allowance I had tough decisions, even when the coins were >$5 each Mostly stocked up on AG/G V nickels, Barber quarters, Buffalo nickels, and the like. They also used to send me this giant catalogue printed on newspaper print that listed their prices for every coin type of every date in every condition. Looking back I'm surprised at how many people were apparently willing to buy coins sight unseen.

I actually managed to get a couple of cheap proofs in the little sealed wraps from them. I think that I still have a '62 nickel from them lying around somewhere that I kept because of some nice electric blue toning. I'll see if I can't find it.

you might as well include the 80s so I can get in there too I grew up in a rural area 50 miles from the nearest shop so my sources for coins were rather limited. Sure, I had interest in coins before Littleton but they certainly played a role in my collection.

Yep, me too... looking back, I can't believe what I paid for the coins, though!

I am sure I overpaid, but where I lived in Minnesota at the time, the coin shop was neither conveniently located nor well stocked. It has been almost thirty years, but I seem to recall the prices at that shop being close to what I was paying Littleton.

Wow.. very cool I wonder how old those are?

I have a few foreign banknotes that came from Littleton. They were shipped because of some gift certificates or premiums they offered. Most are 64-70 circa.

I began to buy from Littleton, but when I received the extra coins, I cancelled. I was sure that sooner or later, there would be a mix up and I'd owe a lot more than I bargained for.

Me, too, back in the 1980s I was a Littleton customer. But they put too much pressure on you to keep buying every time they sent you a packet, and so I ended it. I found a pamphlet with their prices and can't believe what I paid for some of the coins. Some of the prices are still high 25 years later, but some of the keys would be bargains if they sold them at those same prices today.

I was a Littleton customer back in the middle of 1994, when I was 15.
I responded to one of their ads in the Sunday paper to buy Mercury dime and a Walking Liberty half dollar for only $2.95. I had been collecting coins for 9 months and it was my first Walking Liberty half. I bought the entire selection of coins-on-approval, which included my first silver Roosevelt, silver War Nickel, buffalo, and Liberty nickel. (I got a special, one-time discount for buying the entire selection)
Because I had not yet been to a coin store, I thought their catelogue prices were the norm. I was very impressed with how professional looking the mail order paperwork and the catalogues were.
Over the next few months, I continued receiving their coins-on-approval, usually spending $4 - $7 dollars per month buying part of the selection. After about 5 or 6 months, they started requiring me to buy at least $10 worth in order to continue receiving coins-on-approval. I called it quits at that point. A couple of months later, after I got my driver's license, I went to a coin store and finally realized how expensive Littleton Coins were. Although I was impressed with their professionalism, I didn't want' to pay above market value for anything. Plus, I enjoyed going to coin shops and browsing their showroom before deciding what to buy.
Over the next couple of years I still took advantage of a few of their teaser offers but never bought anything on-approval again.