About Bradmore Road Coins
Bradmore Road Coins is a one-person coin business, run by me, Ryan, from Seattle, Washington. I started it after years of collecting left me with more coins than I could reasonably keep, and it has since become a small dealership in its own right.
My interest in coins comes from an interest in history. A coin is an object that was made and used in a particular place and time, and it is one of the few such objects that an ordinary collector can afford to own. That is the appeal, and it is the reason for the motto on this site: numisma gratia numismatis, a play on ars gratia artis. Coins do not need to serve any other purpose.
The name
During graduate school I lived for two years on Bradmore Road in Oxford. I picked the name because I have many fond memories of that place and time, and because I love British coins. Also, importantly, no one else was using it.
What I collect
I mainly collect British coins, but my personal collection has all sorts of items that either caught my eye, or the history behind them spoke to me in one way or another. Funnily enough, my favorite piece is the 1953 Coronation Crown, an inexpensive coin struck in large numbers. There's just something about it. I am also assembling a set with one coin from each British monarch. Beyond Britain I have a particular liking for Portuguese coins. It seems like Portugal picked a stodgy, heraldic-like motif in medieval times and just sort of stuck with it for many centuries. I like that for some reason.
The Talon Capsule
I designed the capsule because I was frustrated with the coin
display products available. Coins are works of art and literal pieces of history, and deserve to be displayed proudly. Binders hide the coin, and the standard capsules rely on foam rings that must be torn to size. A 3D printer made it possible to prototype an alternative that holds coins of different diameters by the rim, leaving both faces visible.
Right now, the capsule is printed at home, one at a time. I hope to do much more with it down the road, but need your help and feedback first.