Well-known Bourbong St store Coins and Collectibles to change hands after 22 years

A big change is in the works for a popular collectable shop which has been running in the Bundaberg region for more than two decades and has sold rare items worth tens of thousands of dollars.

The founders and previous owners of Coins and Collectibles, John and Dehlia Felesina, are retiring after running the store for 22 years.

A well-known fixture of Bourbong St is changing hands with the Coins and Collectibles store coming under new management from Tuesday, April 4.

The founders and previous owners, John and Dehlia Felesina, are retiring after running the store for 22 years.

The store will live on under the new owners, former coin dealers and Coins and Collectibles customers Rick Coleman and Mathew Spencer, after a chance conversation with Mr Felesina.

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“We said we were thinking of opening a coin shop on the Gold Coast, and John said ‘do you want to buy this one?’,” Mr Coleman said.

The new owners Rick Coleman and Mathew Spencer bought Coins and Collectibles after a chance conversation with John Felesina.

And a chance encounter when he was a boy also led Mr Felesina to become hooked on coin collecting.

A coin dealer booked a room, placed a sign outside and set out his wares – coins, stamps and banknotes – on the bed for the public to come in and buy or trade.

“I went into the room and I saw a few coins, and I spent a few dollars and I got hooked on it – I really got hooked on it,” Mr Felesina said.

He realised his childhood dream of opening a coin shop when he opened Bundaberg’s first coin collecting shop with his father in 1994.

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After taking a short break following his marriage to Mrs Felesina, the couple returned to the coin trade to establish the Coins and Collectibles store in 2001.

Part of the secret of their longevity is diversifying from coins to other revenue streams as the market conditions changed.

“We did a bit of market research and realised that collectibles – as in cars, pop culture – is what was needed in the region,” Mrs Felesina said.

Part of the secret of the store’s longevity is due to diversification from coins to other revenue streams as the market conditions changed.

“A lot of businesses don’t move with the times and they fail and close down,” Mr Felesina adds.

And while many businesses suffered during the pandemic, Coins and Collectibles thrived thanks to expanding to gold and silver trading.

“It‘s always been a nice steady business, but it’s really taken off since Covid,” Mrs Felesina said.

“People believe that there’s a little bit of uncertainty with the banks in the world, so they’re diversifying and putting their money into another investment, which is gold and silver.”

Even the challenges from the rise of online behemoths such as eBay did not put a dent in their bottom line.

“You’ve got to cater for everyone, and you’ve got a bigger audience when you sell online,” Mr Felesina said.

“You just have to be great with your service delivery and competitive price and anybody can compete – it’s not a bad thing.”

The most valuable coin in the store currently is the 1967 ‘Goose’ dollar.

Some of the rare coins to come through the store include the holey dollar, the first currency minted in Australia, which the Felesinas sold to a collector for $96,000.

They have also handled “quite a few” 1930 Australian pennies, a famous rare coin from a limited run of 1,500 pennies produced by the Melbourne Mint during the depression – these were sold for over $30,000 each.

The rarest and most valuable item they have sold is a 50 pound note produced during World War 2, of which only around 15 are in existence today – sold by the Felesinas to a collector for around $100,000.

Some of the rare coins to come through the store include the holey dollar, the first currency minted in Australia, which the Felesinas sold to a collector for $96,000.

Now, after working for almost every day of his adult life, it’s time to stop and smell the roses.

“I‘ve done enough work on my life – I’ve always been a ‘go get ‘em type of person’,” he said.

“Now it‘s time to stop and enjoy it, because I know everything comes to an end and you’ve got to enjoy life a bit.”