Rene Alvarenga is a 20-year-old numismatist with big ambitions to build bridges in the hobby.
My name is Rene Alvarenga, and I’m a 20-year-old numismatist from Palm Springs, California, and a collector of primarily U.S. coins. My numismatic journey began when I was 12 years old and used to find Lincoln Wheat Cents in change at a sandwich shop my parents used to own. Since then, I’ve moved into collecting a larger variety of U.S. coins, with my favorite series being Morgan Dollars, including ones that exhibit beautiful toning.
I’ve also studied what goes into grading U.S. coins. I first put my grading skills to the test when I participated in the PCGS Coin Grading Competition at the Long Beach Expo in Long Beach, California, in June 2019. I remember right after I finished grading coins for the YN grading competition, the staff members at the PCGS booth said I graded those coins so well, they wanted me to try my hand at the pieces prepared for the adult competitors. Of those, I graded 70% correctly – an above-average percentage. I was awarded first place in the YN competition and received a PCGS-graded Morgan Dollar as a prize. Later that same month, I attended my first-ever American Numismatic Association (ANA) Summer Seminar in Colorado Springs, Colorado, where I took the “U.S. Coin Grading Part 1” course.
In July 2019, I started an Instagram account called America’s Classic Coins (@americasclassiccoins), where I post short educational videos describing the brief history of each U.S. coin type. I also started an Instagram account (@renetheyoungnumismatist) for sharing photos of my coins and the numismatic events I attend. Later that same month, I was invited for a private tour of the PCGS Headquarters in Southern California to be congratulated for being the winner of the PCGS YN Coin Grading Competition and to meet many of its graders and experts.
I attended my next ANA Summer Seminar in June 2023, where I built friendships with many other young numismatists, took more grading courses to further improve my grading skills, and to receive the 1st Place Kenneth E. Bressett YN Literary Award for an article I wrote called “Coin Grading: A Revolutionary Standard,” which describes the history of the coin grading scale and the numismatic organizations that have adapted the scale.
Three weeks later, I was in San Francisco, California, to attend Witter Coin University 2023. There, I learned more of the fundamentals of grading and numismatic research, explored the city, gave a presentation, built more friendships with many other fellow young numismatists, and met many prominent instructors. Afterwards, I attended the inaugural Professional Numismatist Program hosted by Stack’s Bowers Galleries, where I learned more skills, including advanced grading and trading. I also met more young numismatists and experts while I was there.
I’m looking to build a prominent reputation and career within the numismatic community, help inspire a younger generation of coin collectors, and contribute to the hobby itself. What I really enjoy about coin collecting is that there’s a large variety of coins to collect and learn from, and that this hobby can really take you places – you can even build a career around it! Best of all, though, are the friendships and memories being made throughout my numismatic journey.
