Owners Rusty and Marie Goe stand in front of their coin shop that will be closing at the end of the month.
After 16 years of doing business in northern Nevada, October 31 will mark the final day of operation for Southgate Coins at their South Virginia Street location. Rusty and Marie Goe, owners and operators of Southgate Coins had not planned to close their coin store so abruptly, but they are accepting the change.
The Goes plan to maintain the Southgate Coins website moving forward.
“We still have our website,” Rusty said. “We have an extensive list of clients we will still work with to assist collecting, selling and maintaining their collections.”
Rusty and Marie Goe remain uncertain about the extent they will continue to serve clients that frequented the store once they vacate their current location.
“The ideal exit strategy would have been to sell the business,” Rusty Goe said. He outlined their 16-year-old Reno business having survived the recession, competition, volatile gold and silver markets as well as Internet competition over the years.
“Only a landlord who would not renew our lease caused us to close our doors,” Rusty Goe said. “I don’t feel like I am retiring. I feel like I am surrendering.”
Mike Williams, vice president of marketing for Basin Street Properties, said the company tried to work with the Goes.
“They wanted to downsize in the existing location,” Williams said in a phone interview. “We couldn’t make that work economically.”
He noted that they had made Southgate Coins other offers in the Coliseum Meadows Shopping Center.
“We told them it wouldn’t work for us to have them downsize there,” Williams said. “We tried to be accommodating.”
However, the Goes did not want to face the difficulties with moving the business.
“But since we are already near retirement age, it doesn’t make sense for us to go to all the trouble and expense to set up a new store,” said Marie in a press release.
They estimated that to recreate a brick and mortar location like their current site, it would take five months. They also estimated it to be very costly to outfit a space with the necessary security systems needed in their industry and to uphold their insurance from Lloyds of London.
“When we were younger we met such challenges with vigor; but now we aren’t as adventurous,” she said.
Rusty and Marie Goe opened their Reno store on Sept. 11, 2001, after relocating from Las Vegas. Their first day of operation in Reno was spent watching the unforgettable news of the attacks on the United States unfold on television with members of the community in their shop.
Despite the strange beginning, within three years of establishing Southgate Coins they expanded, more than doubling their size at the 5032 South Virginia Street location.
The Goes explained they would have preferred to work in their existing coin shop location until 2021, which would have marked their 20th anniversary. They added that in this time they would have tried to find a buyer who could have taken over the turnkey business.
Southgate Coins had heard rumors for the past year and a half that a dental management services organization might be interested in the location.
However, it was not until August that they knew they would have to leave when their lease expired the end of November. They chose Oct. 31 for their final operating day to give them a month to move out.
In a press release, Rusty said he will miss “the daily one-on-one personal interaction” with his in-store customers. Sometimes Southgate Coins would see 50 people in a day.
As they move forward, Rusty said he would pursue his research projects and do more writing. He currently has two published books that gained national attention and have won awards. Rusty’s published work includes histories on the Carson City Mint, a guide of the coins produced there, as well as a biography about James Crawford, the longest-serving superintendent at the mint. He founded the Carson City Coin Collectors of America, which is dedicated to increasing the knowledge of the Carson City Mint and the coins it made. Marie will occupy herself with many activities after the doors at the coin shop close. She also plans to continue helping Rusty maintain and operate their Southgate Coins website.
For the most current information on Southgate Coins, visit www.southgatecoins.com.
