From The Makers Of The Leading Numismatic Catalogue

Where in this ad is it mentioned that this is Littleton?

Any time you see "coins on approval" it's Littleton.

In all fairness, there are numismatic investment programs sponsored by major coin dealers that work in much the same way, only for much greater dollar amounts.

Gotta agree, I've been in the coin business since 1978, I've done a lot of deals with them in the past, all selling to them, they have always paid above what other wholesalers or dealers will pay, very fair in that regard. I'm no fan of their selling like this though, but if you have ever seen the size and scope of Littleton's company, overhead, printing/mailing, amount of employees their prices may be high but are not that out of line IMO, compared to the double or more prices I see from other companies, (I'm looking at you Home Shopping Network), they don't mislead you as to values or profits to be had, they seem a lot better than so many spurious investment firms offering rare coin portfolios.

Can you buy cheaper? Absolutely, shop around, find a local coin shop/dealer, go to the coin shows, check pricing on eBay/CDN/Numismaster, etc.

Littleton's approval service filled many holes in my Lincoln Whitman folder when I was kid with no access to an LCS.

This ad explains why Littleton can pay more for common material than most dealers.

@ArrowsAndRays, if it's gold, it's always worth at least bullion, so if the price of gold goes up, it is, indeed, an investment. I just hope she didn't pay massive premiums over spot, but I bet she did. The shopping channels have done more to damage the numismatic hobby than anything since the Mint in 1965 and/or the Hunt Brothers.

It's at least a marginally better outcome than if she had bought modern non-bullion items such as mint/proof sets, medals, etc.

When I was a kid, I collected sports cards, US/world stamps, world bank notes and coins. There were no stamp shops within 30 miles of my little town; there was a coin shop two towns over but it was a 10 mile drive and a VERY special treat to get taken there where the 10x face box awaited my prowling. In order to keep me from bugging my folks too much, they gave me a $10 to $20 monthly allowance to use on Littleton bank notes, of which I still have a decent number stashed away in their original envelopes. I think the most expensive was one from Bhutan that was like $4.95. Sure, they're not worth much, but to a kid obsessed with collecting literally everything, it was the bees' knees. They weren't pitching it as an investment at the time, at least, it didn't seem that way, just a way to acquire items for those of us without ready access to shops. The well-respected Jack Beymer was another guy running the coin approval service in tiered price increments ($10, $100, $1000, whatever.) I used to sit and drool over exotic, seemingly unobtainable items like Large Cents and Bust Half Dollars.

The service they offer might seem rather old-fashioned and pretty much pointless in this era of being able to buy anything you want, anytime, and have it on your doorstep in less than a week, but back then, it was a useful service, at least for some of us.

I'm sure that is not the entire ad. You will notice what is shown doesn't mention ANY company or where to send your $4.95 to. But Littleton is the only company I know of running ads of this type that have approval services. (At least in coins, their sister company Mystic Stamp does the same thing for stamps.)