Welcome to my "Is Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve a Scam?" review.
If you have been on the search for a great precious metals dealer, offering the best products and services, then your best bet to finding the answers is reading reviews.
In this Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve review, you will find out all of the things you need to know about the company. What are its services? Are they budget-friendly? What about its ratings and reviews, are they excellent?
Well, be prepared as we will be answering all of the questions you have on this company!
Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve Review Quick Summary
Company name: Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve
Services: Sells bullion bars, bullion coins and numismatic coins
Price: Varies depending on your investments
Rating: 3/5
Important Warning:
Buying gold, silver, palladium and platinum is not something to mess around with, especially since we are talking about investments and our future.
It is of utmost importance that we thoroughly and carefully think about the decisions we will make.
With that, it is strongly recommended that you do very intense research before deciding to work with any precious metal company. There are several factors that you need to consider: the products and services, pricing, shipping, and the reputation of the company are among these factors.
Buying online comes with a big-enough risk as it is. You should be extra cautious about which company you decide to buy from. That is why I salute you for being here and doing your research.
If you would like to save time, you can check out our top-rated and best recommended precious metals firm right here.
What is Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve?
Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve is a Texas-based company that sells bullion bars, bullion coins and numismatic coins.
They handle various products that are issued by both U.S. and foreign governments. Although the company was established in 2009, Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve claims that it has over 100 years of experience in dealing with precious metals.
That is why the company deeply believes that they have what it takes to serve beginner and professional precious metal investors. In fact, one of its goals is to guarantee a high return on their clients' investments.
This company also offers IRA-eligible products. Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve claims to offer products well below retail prices.
(Note: In general, lower prices can mean lesser service, so review the details carefully before buying and check out several companies. Our preferred gold IRA company can be found here.)
Management Team
Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve is composed of highly-experienced and proficient experts in the precious metals industry.
This includes numismatics experts, economists, trend analysts and precious metal rarities consultants.
They are confident that they can help investors and clients achieve the best of their investment portfolios and to secure their future.
Although there are no information on the management team of the company in its website, but based on LinkedIn, the company's current CEO is Lawrence Kuykendall.
Upon checking the profile, there are no information regarding this person.
Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve Affiliations
A company's affiliations can be a good sign of its legitimacy, especially if they are affiliated with various authoritative organizations in the industry.
Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve is affiliate with the North American Collectibles Association, Professional Coin Grading Service, Numismatic Guaranty Company, American Numismatic Association, and Merchants Bonding Company.
Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve Products
Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve has three product categories: gold coins, silver coins and pre-33 American gold coins.
Apart from that, the company offers coins from other countries, gold/silver start up packages, IRA rollovers and bullion products, making its catalog diverse.
Some of the gold coins that are included in their catalog are Government Issued 1 oz. $50 gold American Eagles, 1 oz. American Silver Eagle and $20 Saint-Gaudens Double Eagle Pre-1933.
Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve Product Purity
For those of you who are wondering about the purity of Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve's products, here is your answer.
Their Gold American Eagle coins are composed of .9999 pure American gold. Moreover, they weigh 3.11 grams with 24 karats, and with 0.28 grams of copper & silver are added to the coin.
Why add copper and silver? Well, copper helps in making the coins more durable and silver adds more luster to them. Adding copper is a must since gold is quite a soft metal.
Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve Shipping
Clients who purchase any products from the company's website will enjoy free shipping. That's right. Any value of orders you will purchase will give you free shipping.
Once you have finalized your order and placed it, a specialized team from the company will take care of you and will process the shipping of your products.
Take note that the shipping times will vary depending on the address of the clients, and whether it is holiday season or not.
However, expect that the products will arrive within 7 to 10 business days since the process and confirmation of your order.
If you wish to know the whereabouts of your orders, the company will provide you with a tracking code. You can use this to follow up with your orders.
Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve Insurance
The company that will be responsible for shipping your products is FedEx, bonded by Merchants Bonding.
All products shipped are fully insured. Furthermore, the company will contact clients via email or a phone call to update them that the products are being shipped already.
Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve Pricing
Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve always always base its product pricing on the current demand and supply of each product.
Usually, the prices range from $22.00 for a one-ounce Silver Eagle coin to $148 for a 1/10 ounce Gold Eagle.
Meanwhile, government-issued coins such as $50 one-ounce gold American Eagle coin, start their prices from $1,736.
To be updated with the current prices of the products, you can give the company a call, or check out its website.
How to buy from Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve?
The buying process of Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve is designed to be straightforward and easy for the clients.
First, you just need to create an account in its website, so that you can start adding products to your cart. You can also access the company's complete product catalog.
Once you have chosen your products, you can proceed to the payment and the company will ship them via FedEx the moment that your payment is confirmed.
Again, you will receive a tracking code so that you will be able to know the whereabouts of your packages.
Moreover, the company will gift you a free two-year subscription to "American Gold Journal" and "Inside The Vault" as a welcome gift.
Payment Methods
The payment methods that are accepted by Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve are the following:
- Visa
- MasterCard
- American Express
- Cash
- Check
Upon my research, there are no additional information regarding the company's payment methods. Some company's would charge fees for certain payment methods, while others will give discounts for other types of payment methods.
No such thing exists in Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve.
Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve Buyback
Although it is not highlighted in the website, Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve stated in its Terms and Conditions its Buyback Policy.
According to it, when you are interested in selling back the products you bought from the company, Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve is willing to buy them back at their current buy/bid price.
Moreover, they do not charge any additional fees or commissions when they make these purchases,
Just take note that there are chances that you will receive less than what you paid for the products. This will depend on the conditions of the market, as well as your original purchase price of the products.
Lastly, you should acknowledge that the law prohibits the guarantee of purchasing back the coins. With this, the company's buyback policy should not be interpreted as a guarantee as it can change without any notice.
Are There Any Red Flags?
This section is where things will get interesting. So buckle up and really absorb what you are about to find out!
No information on the owner/s
It’s hard to completely trust a company with no factual information about the people behind it.
For Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve for instance, the company doesn't seem to have ANY public information on its website as to who its owner is.
This isn’t exactly a great sign. Moreover, reviews and ratings made by its clients online are also not the greatest.
Legal Suit against the company
While I was searching up on the management team and owner of Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve, I found out the name of its CEO, Lawrence Kuykendall through LinkedIn.
Another website, Justia US Law, also revealed that Mr. Lawrence is the CEO of the company. But, the thing is, the webpage contains information on the legal suit that was filed against the company in November 17, 2020.
The company, along with Mr. Lawrence and 4 other individuals associated with Nationwide Coin & Bullion, allegedly violated the DTPA (Texas Deceptive Trade Practices-Consumer Protection Act) when the Plaintiff June Thomas, purchased her coins from the company for investment purposes.
Although the case was remanded to the trial court for further proceedings, this is still alarming.
Customer Complaints
Here you will see the complaints that the customers have on Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve,
Although most of them are resolved already, it is still important to share to you these bizarre situations between the customers and the company.
Impolite Employees
There have been a couple of complaints regarding the rudeness of Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve's representatives. This is a negative thing because in this industry, customer service is one of the most important priorities.
In July, 2022, a complaint was filed against the company by a customer who claimed that he received a very bad service from a representative of the company.
It all began when the customer noticed that there was a price discrepancy with his purchase. He confirmed it verbally with a representative, and he was informed a different price than the one that was indicated in the invoice.
When he called the company to clarify this situation, the representative accused him of lying about it and even added that the customer just could not afford the product. The offensive comments continued.
The customer also stated that the original order was recorded verbally over the phone. He requested to have the representative listen to the said call. However, the representative declined, saying that he already wasted enough time on the business.
Unsatisfied with this, the customer called the manager, who said that he can just keep the silver coin for free. If he paid for the ounce of gold only, the manager can return the rest of the orders for a full refund.
This pleases the customer. However, after sending a couple of emails to the company, he never received any further information on the processing of his refund!
Upon writing the complaint, the customer shared that it has been 2 weeks already since Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve received the products, when the refund should only be processed for 5 business days.
Fortunately, the customer did state that the company already resolved the issue.
Complaint Patterns
In BBB's top page, there was an alert saying that there are complaint patterns in Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve. Although currently, the alert is replaced, this is still an alarming topic that we should talk about.
The pattern of the complaints started in June, 2017. BBB usually does not really step in one-off incidents, however they made this alert to highlight an ongoing mismanagement of the company.
The complaints were observed to be very similar, leading to suspect that the company might have used the same strategies and tactics to the customers.
These clients stated that they were tricked by the same bait and switch attacks, which led them to overpay for their coins. The pattern goes like this:
- The customer would call the company to buy a 1-ounce coin.
- A reasonable price would be locked in, confirming the transaction.
- The customer would then receive a call, notifying that the said 1-ounce coin is out of stock. However, there are new coins that are being offered.
- If the customer is interested, the new coin would be sold instead, however, at a slightly higher price.
- But the representative will not inform the customer that the new coin is 1/4 ounce, not 1 ounce.
Because of this, the customers are paying too much for a 1/4 ounce coin! The company responded to this in 2018, saying that they never used such tactic to trick customers.
Instead, the company informed and explained the process of how these authorized purchases are made, as well as their shipping.
Because of BBB's findings on this matter, Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve created the Compliance Department, which will cater to all of the customers' complaints, issues and concerns.
Moreover, this company trains the employees about its policies, appropriate sale tactics and salesmanship.
Dementia Purchase
Another complaint was filed on behalf of the complainant's husband in July, 2022. According to her, the husband spent $25,000 worth of gold coins in Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve in May, 2022.
She shared that her husband was diagnosed with dementia. But it was still unusual for her husband to make such a huge purchase.
Furthermore, she stated that she specifically blocked some calls to avoid having her husband being manipulated into purchasing stuff. But there was a call in June that promised great deals. The complainant asked the representative to stop the calls already, yet he still continued.
The woman called the number again to explain the situation, asking the representative to stop calling. However, after 2 weeks, the representative left a message, demanding to talk with the husband.
This did not happen since the husband was moved to a care home already. The representative did not take this lightly and became extremely upset.
This made the woman fear for her safety and finances. Moreover, the coins worth $25,000 were delivered on their house's porch without anything to be signed for. This is bad because the package was supposed to be insured and will require to be signed.
Fortunately, the company shared that the Compliance Department reached out to the woman and apologized to her. Both parties negotiated and arrived to a resolution including the following:
- Both the husband and the wife are included in the company's "Do Not Call" list. Since then, they never received calls from the company again.
- It turns out that the husband called Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve on his own will.
- The wife was a bit upset about the fact that the husband made a decision to purchase coins without consulting her first. However, they both discussed this and resolved the matter.
- The husband wanted to keep the coins. But the company stated that they were willing to buy back the coins with the full price.
- Lastly, the sales representative was trained and informed about the company's policies and the appropriate customer service.
Trust Ratings (Updated February 2023)
BBB
In BBB, the company is not rated and only received 3.35 out of 5 rating probably because of the complaints that are filed against the company.
Moreover, it has a history of "Current Alerts" in BBB. Lastly, it is not BBB accredited.
On this part, Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve is at a disadvantage compared to its competitors who have excellent ratings and reviews in BBB.
Trust Pilot
BCA
Both in Trustpilot and BCA, the company has very good ratings and reviews. However, the sample size is quite small compared to the other competitors.
Reviews and Complaints from people
What about their complaints and reviews? Well, here's a handful:
All in all, the comments about Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve are a bit of a mixture of great and not-so-great. Trustpilot reviews seem okay. Hopefully they come from genuine customers, since there have been cases wherein companies hire people to leave positive reviews about them in these websites.
The BBB complaints, on the other hand, are quite serious: a "3.35 and NR" rating on BBB? Yikes.
Some of the complaints filed against Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve talk about the company taking advantage of the elderly.
There are also accusations of them playing the old bait-and-switch shady tactic.
In fact, this type of tactic is not unusual throughout the gold IRA industry. Integrity is one of the reasons Augusta Precious Metals was selected as the top choice.
Some of their customers also went through advertising and sales issues. Most of these complainants also experienced very poor customer service.
Moreover, there is also a Reddit thread about Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve. In general, people there are saying that the company is mostly okay but some people are having problems with the long shipping.
It’s up to you to check out the company you work with and feel comfortable with your chances for a smooth process and integrity in the work you do with them.
There have been a couple of users in YouTube who shared their experience with Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve. Most of their concerns was that the prices of the products are too good to be true.
That is why they uploaded these videos to share what they think about the company and their products.
Pros and Cons
Pros:
- Wide array of products
- Free shipping
- Sells government-issued products
Cons:
- No BBB accreditation
- Many BBB complaints
- BBB Alert!
- Poor customer support
What Do We Recommend?
There are many precious metal companies we can say that we recommend. Although Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve has its ups and downs, there are other companies that we can say, is just better.
One of the companies we can say is worth a shot is Augusta Precious Metals. They have loads of positive reviews online and have received thousands of top ratings.
Is Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve a scam?
While this company is clearly legit, they are not exactly squeaky clean when it comes to their reputation. The complaints are not easy to ignore. The accusation of elderly abuse is also pretty serious.
The comments on their poor customer service is also just as bad. No business is perfect, and that is mostly understandable if they at least provide great and professional customer service. Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve failed to practice that in their customers.
Clients say that they are being disregarded if they call for a complaint. This is a very bad thing. It’s not uncommon for companies to mess orders up, besides, order shipment is a long process, so there are many windows for mistakes.
However, if the reps are helpful and professional, any mistakes can be easily resolved. This is not the case for Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve. Complainants state that they receive no help when calling for assistance.
Conclusions:
If after all these information you still want to give Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve a try, you may do so, but be wary of their alleged tactics.
Make sure that you are not risking an enormous amount of money and make sure that you have gone through thorough research before you finally make that order.
If you want a company that is more reputable and offers great services, Augusta Precious Metals is worth a try.
They have received thousands of top ratings and hundreds of first-rate reviews on consumer watchdog websites. Check out their website through the link below.
Thank you so much for reading my "Is Nationwide Coin & Bullion Reserve A Scam?" review! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave them below in the comments section.
Please allow me a moment to comment on this company. The timing of all of this is quite remarkable. I was interested in buying a 1oz. gold coin as a graduation gift for my niece ( I have no kids..lol)…Knowing the market as a former trader I didn't want to overpay to a dealer, I knew if I researched and shopped around, I could find one within reason to spot price which was trading in a range of $1,775-1,790. Most gold coins were priced over 1900, which I thought was ridiculous. I even saw some on Ebay, I"m bidding, get outbid, I drop out, as I said, I'm in no hurry to overpay. That very afternoon my weekly circulars arrive with the mail and the back page ad catches my eye, an advertisement for Gold American Eagles at spot price $1725. They also offered a free 1 MS70 1oz. Silver Eagles as a gift. I was really really skeptical but I said I'd go along to see what happened. I called and spoke to the agent Matthew, a super nice guy and after giving him the ad's key code, processed my order. I knew what the spot price was and he gave me a quote which was even better, I was only allowed one, and he tried to up-sell me on other products, which was fair, and graciously accepted my decline. I was still nervous which led me to this site but I have to say the coins arrived a few days ago and I received a beautiful 2021- 1oz gold coin. It's realllly nice. The coins were very well packaged and in plastic display boxes.. I had tracking numbers for when it was shipped. The silver American Eagle is indeed MS70 and signed by designer Dale Everhart. I could not be more satisfied !! They are the real deal & I did get a great, fair deal. Please not not hesitate to do business with this company. I was only allowed to buy the one coin at spot, but that's all I wanted to really buy. The timing was crazy, as they say it was meant to be and I thank Nationwide coins. From start to finish, they were all awesome to deal with.
Really appreciate you sharing your experience, James.
I got scammed for $1107.00 i was convinced by Jeffery Harrison to buy a 1/2 ounce 2020 $10 Dollar coin. Don Everhart MS70 with a Authentic Hand Signed. He said that it was a low mintage of 500 and should go up in value in a short time? I made this purchase on 8/24/2020 I saw the same coin for sale on E-Bay for $888.00, on 5/07/2021. DO NOT TRUST THIS COMPANY
What a shame, Dennis. Sorry for your loss. Hopefully your feedback helps others avoid the same situation. Really appreciate you sharing your experience. Buyer beware.