SilverTowne

SilverTowne: Indiana Bullion Dealer and Custom Mint Since 1949

SilverTowne is a precious metals dealer founded in 1949 in Winchester, Indiana, by Leon Hendrickson, who began by collecting interesting coins from the cash drawer of his family's restaurant and keeping them in a cigar box under the counter. The business that grew out of that cigar box operates today as SilverTowne, L.P. from 120 E. Union City Pike in Winchester, where it maintains a retail showroom and vault alongside its e-commerce store at silvertowne.com.

The dealer sells US Mint products, sovereign bullion coins, and gold, silver, and platinum bullion, together with SilverTowne-branded products struck at the minting facility in Winchester. A smelting and custom minting operation was installed in 1985, and in 2016 A-Mark Precious Metals acquired a majority stake in Silver Towne Mint, which has operated as a separate entity since. The mint holds ISO 9001:2015 certification and works from LBMA-approved, COMEX-certified silver feedstock; its capabilities span full silver melting and casting, in-house die production by master engravers, and hand-enameling, with output including silver rounds and silver bars carrying the SilverTowne name.

SilverTowne also produces The Coin Vault, a live coin and bullion television show that has been on air since 1988 and has broadcast from a studio at the company's Winchester headquarters since 2015. The business has remained a family affair across three generations of the Hendrickson family: Leon's son David Hendrickson became President in 2010, and Leon's grandson joined The Coin Vault as a host in 2014. The company holds Professional Numismatists Guild and American Numismatic Association memberships, continuing affiliations that stretch back to Leon Hendrickson's terms as president of the PNG and the Central States Numismatic Society in the 1980s.

From a Cigar Box at the Rainbow Restaurant to a National Mint

Leon Hendrickson's coin business began in 1949 at the Rainbow Restaurant in Winchester, Indiana, which he co-owned with his in-laws. Interesting coins from the cash drawer went into a cigar box under the counter, and the hobby grew into a trade: the second story of the Rainbow became the Winchester Coin Shop. When demand for $1,000 bags of silver dollars surged in the early 1960s, the Hendricksons travelled to Washington, DC every week to buy bags of Morgan, Peace, and Liberty Seated dollars and bring them back to Indiana.

The business moved into the basement of the Hendrickson family home in 1958 and stayed there until 1982. For years it grew alongside farming, two skating rinks, and a rural mail route, until Leon began dealing coins full-time in 1967. In the years around the Coinage Act of 1965, SilverTowne scoured the upper Midwest for silver certificate notes, redeeming them for silver dollars, silver ingots, and silver pellets.

The silver run of 1979 and 1980, when the Hunt Brothers drove prices to historic highs, gave SilverTowne the capital for its next move. In March 1982 the company relocated to a newly constructed, high-security 12,000 square foot building nicknamed the Mighty Fortress. Three years later a second building was acquired and fitted with a smelting and custom minting operation, the origin of the SilverTowne minting division. By the late 1980s the site had added a jewelry department, a collectibles room, and expanded shipping areas. Leon's dealing in this era included the Dexter 1804 silver dollar, bought for $500,000 and sold four years later for $990,000, along with involvement in the GSA Carson City Morgan dollar sales and the LaVere Redfield hoard.

The Coin Vault, a live shop-at-home coin television show, launched in 1988 on the Shop at Home network. When that network closed in March 2008, Leon Hendrickson purchased the show and continued it under SilverTowne ownership, first from a studio in Franklin, Tennessee, and from June 2015 from a purpose-built studio at the Winchester headquarters. David Hendrickson, Leon's son, became President of SilverTowne in 2010, and Leon's grandson Andy Abel joined The Coin Vault as a host in 2014.

Leon Hendrickson was inducted into the PCGS CoinFacts Coin Dealer Hall of Fame in 2012, having earlier served as president of the Professional Numismatists Guild from 1985 to 1989 and been named the American Numismatic Association's Numismatist of the Year in 2008. He passed away in 2017. In 2016, A-Mark Precious Metals acquired a majority stake in Silver Towne Mint, which at the time was producing approximately 12.5 million ounces of silver a year; SilverTowne, L.P. continued to run the retail showroom, the e-commerce business, and The Coin Vault independently. The mint, a wholly owned A-Mark subsidiary, went on to acquire the assets of Utah's Regency Mint in October 2024, adding proof-quality coin and fractional product capacity.