From a tidy and unassuming office on the second floor of his office building in Virginia Beach, John Feigenbaum, a local Jewish community member, sits on a raised chair before his elevated computer screen and sets the pricing used by coin dealers throughout the United States for their trading of domestic collector coins.
Feigenbaum, who ironically has no collection of his own, has become a central figure in the world of U.S. numismatics – aka, coin collecting. He has reached his lofty perch following three separate times in his life when he planned to pursue avenues outside the industry.
Now, far from leaving the business, Feigenbaum has endeavored to almost single-handedly bring the U.S. coin industry into the modern and digital age. Partnering with an investing group, he has doubled down on the industry by purchasing two of the longest standing, most respected pricing publications – The Grey Sheet and The Official Red Book; guides Feigenbaum has relied on since his very early days of coin collecting and coin dealing with his father, David Lawrence Feigenbaum, of blessed memory.
Feigenbaum recalls that, “at the age of five or six I was tagging along with my father at coin shows in South Florida, where my dad was studying for his PhD in marine biology and building his coin collection. By seven and eight I was sitting behind a folding table with my dad at coin shows, interacting with adults who were trying to take advantage of a young kid.”
The father-son informal partnership continued into the 1980’s as Feigenbaum’s father assumed a professorship at Old Dominion University and transitioned from coin collecting to coin dealing. Feigenbaum continued to accompany his father at coin shows around the country and used his precocious insight and instincts to help his father build his business.
“My father enjoyed setting up our table and interacting with people as they stopped by. I immediately headed out into the room to hunt for deals – what we call cherry-picking. I loved working the floor.”
But despite gaining extensive knowledge of coins and keen trading skills, the younger Feigenbaum did not plan on joining his father in business after he graduated from Virgina Tech in 1991 with a marketing degree and a “fascination for desktop publishing.”
“My heroes were Steve Jobs and Bill Gates,” Feigenbaum recalls. “I wanted to develop a marketing and computer graphics business – which was really catching on in the early 90’s – and then head to Colorado. I had no interest in joining the coin business.”
Feigenbaum gave up his quest for the Rockies, though, when a friendship with a fellow Hokie, Rachael Scott, grew into something more; leading to the couple settling in Virginia Beach and marrying in 1993. “Once Rachael and I started dating,” Feigenbaum recalls, “I didn’t want to leave.”
Feigenbaum began building an advertising graphics company and continued assisting his father at coin shows. “I was burning the candle at both ends and it got to be too much,” Feigenbaum says. “I also realized I could achieve quicker success in the coin world, so in 1992 I joined my father full time, not knowing if the business could support both of us.”
Over the next four years the Feigenbaum duo did build David Lawrence Rare Coins into a successful dealership that amply supported both families. But Feigenbaum, who always envisioned being his own boss, began to bristle at his father’s more academic approach to the business. “By 1996 I was ready to leave, not knowing exactly what I wanted to do,” Feigenbaum says. “I was probably six months away from leaving when, out of the blue, my father was diagnosed with ALS. I knew he needed me then and I took on more of the load as his health declined.” (David Feigenbaum passed away in 2002 after a six-year battle with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS).
Feigenbaum ran David Lawrence Rare Coins until 2017, years during which he gained the trust of some of the foremost coin collectors in the United States and abroad. He experienced sourcing and ultimately purchasing the rare 1894-S Barber dime – worth more than $1 million – and also led the auction of a prized coin collection worth more than $24 million.
Yet, despite building a successful business and reputation in numismatics, Feigenbaum was ready for a change by 2015. He wanted to sell the business and pursue other ventures – and not necessarily in the coin industry. “I didn’t really know what I wanted to do,” Feigenbaum says.
But as fate would have it, Feigenbaum learned during a casual conversation with a business friend that the venerable Grey Sheet, the monthly pricing guide used by Feigenbaum and his father throughout their coin careers, was for sale. Feigenbaum quickly worked out a deal with some key players in the coin industry to purchase CDN Publishing – publishers of the Grey Sheet, and brought his computer graphics skills to bear in updating and improving the product while maintaining the Grey Sheet pricing integrity.
In 2017, Feigenbaum sold David Lawrence Rare Coins and began eyeing other publications to bring into the fold. Through consistent conversations over a number of years with Mary Burleson, president of the long standing and highly respected Whitman Publishing, Feigenbaum gained an inside track when Burleson intimated in 2023 that the owners of Whitman, following the death of one of the owners, might be willing to sell.
In short order Feigenbaum and his partners were able to purchase Whitman, publishers of a number of publications, including The Official Red Book, the most comprehensive guide to U.S. coins in the industry. As he did with Grey Sheet, Feigenbaum boldly revamped Red Book, making it more lively and user friendly.
Now Feigenbaum, who planned on three occasions to leave the coin industry, is the owner and publisher of the premier monthly and premier annual publication in the world of U.S. numismatics, an empire he runs from his unassuming perch on Laskin Road – with accounting assistance from his favorite CPA, wife, Rachael.
And while the couple is immersed in the world of coins, they also participate in the Tidewater Jewish community, with Rachael having served as chair of United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Holocaust Commission and John supporting a host of Jewish causes. When asked why he feels strongly about participating, Feigenbaum says, “Taking care of people in need is a very important part of our society and I don’t know a better way to insert myself into society than through Jewish causes.”
John Feigenbaum at the center of the U.S. coin industry
