PCGS Founder David Hall Departs Collectors Universe

​​Collectors Universe announced last night the departure of David Hall from his role as the company’s president and chief operating officer effective September 18, 2018. The news comes as a surprise to many in the numismatic community, and a brief press release from the company announcing Hall’s termination provides no details as to the reason for his immediate departure. Among the few other insights the report offers is that Joseph J. Orlando, the firm’s chief executive officer, will assume Hall’s duties.

​As of today, with little other information available to go on, any guesses as to why Hall’s employment was terminated is mere conjecture. It should be noted that Collectors Universe is publicly traded on the NASDAQ stock exchange (CLCT), though whether or not the move has anything to do with business motives from that standpoint has not been officially acknowledged.

What we do know is that Hall has an illustrious career résumé. He entered the professional side of numismatics in 1966 and became a full-time rare coin dealer in 1972. He has operated David Hall Rare Coins since 1977 and in 1985 went on to found Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) with six other dealers, serving as the firm’s first president upon its initial operations in February 1986. Hall has won numerous awards for his writing, business interests, and philanthropy, and in a 1996 issue of Numismatic News he was dubbed “the man who changed the rare coin market forever.” In 1999, COINage named Hall one of the top “Numismatists of the Century,” the same year he received the prestigious American Numismatic Association Presidential Award.
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