West Road Coin Shop Has Anything from Shipwreck Coins to a $1 Bill Worth $2,000

Rusty Hohman realized his love for old coins and currency at a barbershop outside Pittsburgh when he was a boy. He was still using a booster chair at the time.

As an adult Hohman, 56, of Romulus, turned his love for old coins into a business called West Road Coin Bullion and Supplies, 3941 West Road, in Trenton.

"My barber got me started when I was 7 or 8," Hohman said. "Anytime someone gave him something weird or a silver coin he'd always put it in a cigar box."

Intrigued, Hohman said he began looking in the cigar box at the different coins and said his first look at a buffalo nickel nearly blew him away.

"I had a paper route, so when I would go to my barber I would always go in with a bag of change and he would switch them out with me ... he's the one who really got me hooked," Hohman said.

A former assistant police chief in West May, PA, Hohman left law enforcement and, later, a job at Detroit Metro Airport to follow his true passion—coins and currency.

"That's what got me into it ... it was the history not the money," Hohman said. "When you're a kid you don't think about the money part. Who held it? What did it buy? The romance of it got me into it."

Hohman began buying and selling coins at a rental space in Gibraltar Trade Center in Taylor. Eventually his business became so successful he decided to open the coin shop in 2005.

West Road Coin Shop has all the coins you might see on popular hit television shows such as "Pawn Stars" and "Storage Wars."

He has a $1 1896 Educational Note valued at $2,000. Hohman calls the bill a work of art.

"Back in the day we took pride in our money and we took pride in our country, which is a little different today," Hohman said. "Today we don't take pride (in our money) we just say, 'Does it work,' and that's all we care about."

Hohman also has a rare $500 bill that is valued at $950.

One of the most interesting coins in Hohman's shop is a 1790 Spanish 8 Reale found in a shipwreck. Hohman said pirates once cut the coins into eight pieces to pay for goods and services.

Hohman said all of the U.S. currency in his shop, including his $1 bill worth $2,000, can still be taken to any bank and exchanged for face value, but he doesn't recommend people do that.

"Senior citizens are taking silver coins like Franklin half dollars to the bank right now and depositing them at face value or dumping them into a Coin Star, but they're $10.50 a piece," Hohman said.

Coins increase in value for many reasons, but Hohman said the main reason is the ever-increasing value of precious metals.

Most of Hohman's day-to-day business deals in giving people the best value for their gold and silver.

Annie Hayes of Southgate brought coins given to her by her great grandmother into the shop to find out their value. Hohman told her that her 14 silver dollars were worth more than $200.

"I just was curious," Hayes said.

The walls of the shop are covered in historic photos and documents.

A quote that hangs over the shop window reads, "May all who enter as guests leave as friends."

Many of Hohman's customers hang out in the shop and talk religion and politics over doughnuts and coffee.

Hohman said he isn't too concerned about the declining economy driving down the value of his rare and valuable coins.

"If you do something you enjoy," he said, "you never really work a day in your life."