Luke Judge

St. George » Robert Kent can turn a fleeting moment into a memory as permanent as metal.

The retired golf pro and basketball coach, who lives in St. George, is the owner of the Greenleafe Group, which creates commemorative coins, pins and medallions for schools, businesses and even national parks.

One of his most recent commissions was creating a coin to commemorate the 2009 centennial of Zion National Park in southern Utah.

Kent also made commemorative pins for centennial events at the park, and in the past has contracted with Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado for its 2006 centennial coin and is working with Hawaii Volcanoes National Park for a possible centennial coin for the park’s 2011 celebration.

Not all of his work involves nature. He designed a commemorative coin for the 2002 McDonald’s High School All-American Game, which is played annually in Madison Square Garden, and coins for the openings of several Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temples, including those in Nauvoo, Ill., and in the Netherlands.

Kent said he finds many of his customers through online solicitations: His database includes every college and university in the country. When a special anniversary is approaching, he asks school officials if they would like a special coin to mark the occasion.

“I usually contact them two years before an anniversary,” he said.

Kent arranges for art

work for the coin and works with clients on how it will look reduced to a typical size of 1¾ inches in diameter. The larger medallions can measure up to 5 inches in diameter.

Once the art work is selected, the image is engraved on a die of hardened steel used to stamp a blank once or twice, depending on the metal, with between 10 to 350 tons of force.

“The coins are made just like the change in your pocket,” he said.

Regency Mint in Orem does the stamping on the coins, which can be made with any type of metal.

While gold is rarely used because of its price, Greenleafe does use pure silver for some projects. Most coins and medallions are made from alloys of bronze, with a shiny gold coloring, or nickel that produces a silver shine. A patina can also be applied through an antiquing process.

He can also silver plate coins made of less expensive alloys.

Kent doesn’t have a Web site because he wants to keep the company small. “Things are just right now. We don’t want to get too big,” he said.

One of Kent’s Zion coins went into orbit onboard the last space shuttle flight with astronaut Lt. Col. Robert Behnken, a park supporter and frequent visitor. That coin will eventually go display at the park’s museum.

Copies of the coin, which shows the Great White Throne on one side and the entrance of Zion’s famed tunnel on the other, is sold at the park’s bookstore for $14.99 without a box and $40.99 with it.

Tammy Eberhard, manager of the park bookstore, said collectors seem to prefer the boxed coin. More than 2,000 of the coins were ordered for sale.

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There are so many things that can affect the value of your coin collection. A lot of these are obvious like the condition your coin is in or how old it is. How many coins were produced is another item that will affect your coin collecting values. Other things to keep in mind are factors that are beyond your control such as how much desire there is for the coin you own.

While you do not have any control over all the things that affect your coin collecting values like the state of our economy there are many things you can watch out for. The more knowledgeable of a coin collector you become the easier it will become to spot the winners.

Here are a few things you could keep an eye on when determining your coin collection value.

Learning how to grade your coins should be a top priority. You can and should seek the services of a professional coin grader if you are not certain of your ability to properly grade your coins. However there are a few simple steps you can take to determine your coin value. You should start with a through visual inspection. Try to decide where your coin will rank in the coin grading system.

Age is a general factor to keep in mind when determining your coins value. Generally speaking a very old coin will be worth more than a modern day coin. This does not factor in things like wear, where it was minted, the history of the coin or other essential pieces of information.

How rare the coin is has much to do with its value. It stands to reason that if there are not a large number of a coin to be had it will bring a higher price than one that can be found easily. Usually the less a certain coin was produced the more bucks it will bring if you decide to sell it.

Coins that were produced with errors or flaws in them are generally considered more collectible in the coin collecting market. Things like double-strikes or file marks can determine the coins value.

Coins that have visible wear or a defect such as nicks or scratches will often not be worth as much as the same coin in mint condition. Use common sense and experience to decide whether a defect is a profit producing error or if the coin is just worn.

There will always be fads that will come and go away. Sometimes your coins will bring you more profit than other times. This is not under your control so do the best you can and sell your coins when conditions are best if you can.

Do your research and you will find yourself being able to more accurately determine your coin collecting values.

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