User:Crevels02

Chattanooga Coin Company
When you think of Chattanooga Coin, two things automatically come to your mind. The first is its location. Chattanooga really is the "Scenic City of the South." Go ahead and 'Google' the phrase. Chattanooga will monopolize the responses, … and for good reason. Nestled in the foothills of the southern Appalachian Mountains, Chattanooga is a great destination and a greater place to live. A riverboat excursion up the Tennessee River Gorge, a whitewater rafting trip down the Ocoee, a hangglide off Signal Mountain, an Incline Railway ride up Lookout Mountain to visit Ruby Falls or Rock City … or a simple jaunt downtown to visit Tennessee's largest aquarium or just hang out on the North Shore. Each one, and all, attest to the well-earned designation. Chattanooga is all about scenery, history and God's magnificent handiwork. But even more important than its location is the second thing that comes to mind when you think of Chattanooga Coin, and that is its proprietor, … Lewis Revels. Regardless of the history of corporate identities, logos and d/b/a's through the years, … in a sense just as real as its location, Chattanooga Coin is embodied by Lewis Revels.

Lewis was born a frail child to a young mother acquainted with poverty. A middle child among three brothers, Lewis always had a strong sense of independence. At about 12, he struck out on his first paid job, that being a route carrier for the old newspaper, Grit. It was at this time that he first paid attention to coins.

Lewis would deliver the papers and receive subscription payments from customers, much of which was in coin. He noticed the wide variety of denominations, dates and conditions of the coins used by his customers. He would bring them home and show them to his grandfather who would attest to the different types and rarities. Lewis was enthralled by them.

Thus began Lewis' life-long love of our nation's numismatic heritage. He began collecting and trading, buying and swapping. Lewis had found his first love …and he would never leave it. Even a short-lived career in engineering following the attainment of a college degree left him unsatisfied … and he soon left it to return to coins as a full-time dealer. He and his wife soon opened their first coin shop called Heritage House in Rossville, GA, a suburb of Chattanooga.

The shop thrived, but Lewis wanted to do more than wait on the handful of walk-ins who might visit on any given day. He worked the phones. He worked the Coin Net, the network wire of coin dealers. He made friends, networked with local and national dealers, … and, of course, transacted business, which grew in both volume and diversity of holdings. His collection soon was on par with other dealers. He just needed a more efficient vehicle through which to channel the increasingly large volume of business that he was doing. That's where Chattanoooga Coin came in.

"Chattanooga Coin" (not the present day Chattanooga Coin, Inc.,) was founded in 1963 by Gary Fillers and Doc Denton, a couple of coin and collectibles dealers from the area. It was sold to World Wide Coin in 1974, and later to Lewis in 1981. Along with the original corporation, Lewis also purchased the Coin Wholesaler, at that time a newspaper format publication. Its name has changed through the years to "Coin and Sportscard Wholesaler" and finally to "Coin and Currency Wholesaler." It changed to its current magazine format in the year 2000 and has published continually since its inception in 1970.

Presently, Chattanooga Coin, Inc. operates from 3 different venues in both Chattanooga, TN and Rossville, GA by over 20 employees. Owners and employees have over 150 years combined experience and expertise in numismatics and are members of FUN, GNA, TSNA, NCNA and SCNA. The company is an authorized dealer in good standing with PCGS, NGC, PMG, ICG, IGS and PCI.

Lewis Revels was one of the original owners of the Photo Certified Coin Institute (PCI) and a finalizer for 6 years with over 100,000 coins per year volume. He has written several paperbacks on different topics in numismatics and notaphily, specifically on $500 and $1000 bills, U.S. Silver Certificates, "How to Buy Silver for 50¢ on the $1," and others. Moreover, Lewis has been both a show host and a vendor for numerous cable and satellite televsion shopping networks, among them, Home Shopping Network, CoinTV, Shop at Home, Celebrity TV and Coin Country.

Chattanooga Coin, under Revels' leadership, has gained a nationwide following of very loyal customers and a reputation for being on the cutting edge of new release promotion, custom series labelling in collaboration with NGC and PCGS and, of course, the price leader in the industry. Whether you're looking for the hottest new U.S. Mint release, a specific grade of an old classic coin …whether it's silver, gold or platinum, a private commem, or a piece of U.S. or some historic currency that you want, you can't do better than coming to chattanoogacoins.com.

Written by Boyd Hargraves, Senior Editor Coin & Currency Wholesaler May 10, 2010