Chards

Chards, the Blackpool Bullion and Coin Dealer Founded in 1964

Chards is a UK precious metals dealer headquartered in Blackpool, Lancashire, where it has traded since 1964. The registered company, Chard (1964) Ltd, carries its founding year in its name, is incorporated in England under Companies House number 01378220, and is registered for VAT in the United Kingdom. Its registered office is at 32-36 Harrowside, Blackpool. The business started out as a numismatic coin dealer and broadened into bullion over the decades that followed; its range spans gold, silver, platinum and palladium coins and bars, together with collectable coins, scrap gold and accessories.

Chards attained Full Membership of the London Bullion Market Association (LBMA) in January 2024. The company operates two showrooms: its Blackpool headquarters at 32-36 Harrowside and a London showroom at Suite 127, 100 Hatton Garden, which opened in 2024 to mark the firm's 60th year. Vaulted storage is offered at both the Blackpool and London locations, and transactions, including vaulted holdings, are insured through Lloyd's of London, with the company's financials and vaulted assets subject to third-party verification by the auditor Azets. The company also supports SIPP-eligible investment options and supplies VAT-free silver and platinum on a Loco Zurich basis.

The dealer's particular specialisation is British gold sovereigns, and it holds an extensive collection of dated and graded sovereigns built up over its decades in the coin trade. Chards has been family-run throughout its history and has sold online since at least 2001, serving customers in the UK and internationally.

From a Dale Street Coin Shop to Hatton Garden: Six Decades of Chards

Chards began in 1964, when Lawrence Chard and his cousin Robert Alan Chard opened a small coin shop at 10 Dale Street, Blackpool, trading as R. & L. Coins. Lawrence had grown up around his family's penny arcade business, working in it from the age of seven, and the coin venture took shape after a regular arcade customer passed the cousins a coin buying list. Robert sold his share to Lawrence when he left for university in 1965, leaving Lawrence as sole owner.

The business outgrew its first premises within five years. In 1969 Lawrence bought a new shop on Lytham Road, Blackpool, a move the local press covered under the headline "Five-year story of success". Lytham Road remained the company's home for more than four decades, and over that period the firm evolved from a purely numismatic dealer into a bullion business, adding gold, silver, platinum and palladium products to its coin trade. Its website has been online since at least September 2001.

The company marked its 50th anniversary in 2014 with a move to 32-36 Harrowside, Blackpool, where an art deco building was gutted and rebuilt to provide the security a bullion dealer requires. The Blackpool Gazette covered the milestone under the headline "Bullion dealers celebrate their 50 golden years". In the years that followed, Bullion Directory named Chards its UK Bullion Dealer of the Year in 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018, and awarded it Numismatic Dealer of the Year and eCommerce Dealer of the Year titles on multiple occasions.

Chards celebrated 60 years in business in 2024 with two milestones: Full Membership of the London Bullion Market Association, attained in January 2024, and the opening of a second showroom at Suite 127, 100 Hatton Garden, London, an address in a district long associated with the precious metals trade. Through all of it the firm has remained family-run, with its specialism in British gold sovereigns running from its numismatic roots through to its bullion trade.