Shire Post Mint review

The catalogue's entry price is €3.59, shown in euros rather than dollars on the collection listing. For a buyer paying in another currency the amount converts at the rate on the day, so the figure on your statement is not the one printed here. As a first outlay it is small, which makes it an easy way to find out whether hand-pressed coins suit your collection at all.

Delivery is offered across 9 countries including the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, so the shop reaches well beyond its US base. Catalogue prices are quoted in euros, which means a buyer in Britain or Japan sees a currency change on top of the coin price. Orders past $100 ship free, so the delivery charge drops away once your basket is big enough.

The return policy lasts 30 days. That is enough to open the box and compare a coin with its listing, and tight for an overseas buyer waiting on a parcel from a US workshop. If you are buying from outside the US, decide early and post it back rather than letting the coin sit on a shelf while the window runs down.

Everything listed is a pressed coin reproduction of an ancient design rather than a real issue or legal tender. The catalogue runs to individual coins and to matched pairs built on one design, so a listing can cover a set rather than a piece. Nothing here is a souvenir tied to a film, game or comic release, which points the shelf at a numismatics collector rather than a memorabilia hunter.

The website is operated by Shire Post Mint, a small family-run coining operation based in the US, and the business dates back to 2001. The founder's first antique coin press came before that first year, and the work is still done on presses in a workshop rather than in a mass plant. For a buyer, that history is reassurance of continuity between the workshop and the coins on your screen.

Support runs on email and help centre, so questions go in writing and answers come back by email or through the help centre. There is no phone line to call during a working day and no live chat to interrupt, which suits buyers who would rather keep a written record of what was agreed about a coin's condition or a delivery.

Delivery is free once an order passes $100, so the postage line disappears on larger baskets rather than small ones. On a first coin the delivery charge is still part of what you pay, and that matters when the coin itself is cheap. A themed set or a matched pair pushes the order past the threshold and takes that charge out of the picture.