Universal Coin & Bullion

A Texas Rare Coin and Bullion Dealer Founded in 1994

Universal Coin & Bullion (UCB) is an American precious metals and rare coin dealer founded in 1994 by Dr. Michael Fuljenz and based at 7410 Phelan Boulevard in Beaumont, Texas. The business sells nationally by phone and online, specialising in rare United States coins, gold bullion, silver bullion, and IRA diversification strategies. By its own account, the company has transacted more than $2.6 billion in business with over 500,000 customers since its founding.

UCB holds three state and municipal registrations: Texas Registered Precious Metal Dealer #0100913, Texas Telemarketing Registration #2010-0004, and Beaumont Registered Precious Metal Dealer Permit #2012-04. It has been BBB accredited since 1995 and received the Friend of the BBB Award in 2025.

The company's industry accreditations span both grading services and trade bodies. UCB is a Professional Numismatists Guild (PNG) Accredited Precious Metals Dealer and an authorized dealer for PCGS, NGC, and CAC, the major coin grading and certification services. Founder Mike Fuljenz was a founding member of the Industry Council for Tangible Assets in 1993, the trade body now known as the National Coin and Bullion Association (NCBA), and has served on its board continuously since then. The American Numismatic Association named him ANA Dealer of the Year in 2021.

Local recognition includes the Beaumont Enterprise Reader's Choice award for "Best Place to Buy and Sell Gold" in 2014, 2019, 2022, and 2023, and a Beaumont Police Department Corporate Award in 2012.

Three Decades of Numismatics in Beaumont

Universal Coin & Bullion's story is inseparable from its founder. Michael Fuljenz began collecting coins as a child in Louisiana, going on to serve as president of his local coin club and chairman of the Louisiana State Coin Convention. He worked as a school teacher and then a school principal before entering the coin trade professionally. From 1982 to 1998 he taught classes for the American Numismatic Association on counterfeit detection, coin grading, and gold and commemorative coinage, and from 1987 to 1989 he chaired the ANA Certification Service (ANACS). Before founding his own firm, he served as vice president of Blanchard and Company, a New Orleans rare coin dealer, then relocated to Beaumont, Texas in the mid-1990s.

Fuljenz founded Universal Coin & Bullion in 1994, and BBB accreditation followed in 1995. The firm was trading online by May 2001 at the latest, the date of the earliest archived snapshot of universalcoin.com. Formal registrations followed: a Texas Telemarketing Registration in 2010 and a Beaumont Registered Precious Metal Dealer permit in 2012.

Between 2007 and 2010 Fuljenz published four numismatic reference books, including The Collector's Guide to $10 Indian Head Eagles (2007) and Indian Gold Coins of the 20th Century (2010); his Type III Double Eagles 1877-1907 reached a revised third edition in 2023. The Numismatic Literary Guild has given him more than 35 awards since 2000, including six Investment Book of the Year awards and the guild's highest honour, "The Clemy," in 2013. He served on the NLG board from 2013 to 2020.

Recognition accumulated through the 2010s and 2020s: the PNG Sol Kaplan Award in 2016 and 2024 for work against crime in the coin and bullion marketplace, ANA Dealer of the Year in 2021, ANA Presidential Service Awards in 1996 and 2022, and in 2023 both the ANA Philanthropy Award and the ANA Chester L. Krause Memorial Distinguished Service Award, the association's highest honour. Fuljenz has also served as a consultant to the Federal Trade Commission, the U.S. Postal Service, the United States Mint, the Royal Canadian Mint, and the Attorney General of Texas.

In July 2024 UCB announced a strategic marketing joint venture with two other Beaumont precious metals firms, 1st American Coin, Ltd. and 1st National Reserve, Ltd., with both partners trading under the Universal Coin & Bullion name while remaining separate legal entities. In 2025 the company received the Friend of the BBB Award.