Inside PCGS: Sanjay C. Gandhi

The first connection I had with coins was at the age of six. My dad received a brochure from a company that promoted gold coins. He never bought any gold coins from the marketer but ended up putting a down payment on a house in June of 1978. In December of that year, our family took a trip to India, and my father returned to the United States two months later. My mother and I got stuck in India for almost a year due to issues with our visas. During that time in India, we lived at my grandfather's house, which was in the inner city of Ahmedabad. There are 28 states in India and Ahmedabad is in the state of Gujarat. It was at my grandfather's home that I received a coin or token from one of my cousins as an eight-year-old. I became fascinated by this coin but couldn't read the date as it was in Arabic numerals. I showed it to my grandfather, who said, "This is dated 1666." I thought, "Wow, that's so old and neat!" This encounter sparked my interest in coins.

In November 1979, our visas cleared and we departed from Bombay, India, to head back home to Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, 16 miles southwest of Pittsburgh. I came back to South Fayette Elementary School, named after French General Marquis de La Fayette, and advanced to third grade. The last vivid memory I had from second grade was listening to the soundtrack from the movie Grease and imitating John Travolta singing "Greased Lightnin" with classmates. Music has deeply resonated with me from a young age, as my father was always listening to music in our home. Also, my boyhood classmates and I were smitten with singer-actor Olivia Newton-John, who was Travolta's co-star in Grease. Somewhere between second and third grade, cursive writing was introduced, which I had not learned and therefore reading the chalkboard was not possible. You could say I was illiterate. Mrs. Abruzzi recognized I couldn't read cursive and wrote in print for me so I could comprehend lessons on the chalkboard.

Most of my days in India were spent shooting marbles, playing cricket, lighting fireworks, eating ice cream, and doing everything but being studious. In the spring of 1980, at the age of nine, my father signed me up to play baseball in a league called the Mighty Mites. I had never played baseball. My father bought me a left-handed glove, and my coach happened to be left handed as well. Coach Bill Eckman tried to teach me to bat left-handed but was unsuccessful. He then realized that I was better at batting right-handed, just like baseball great Rickey Henderson. I played centerfield, first base, and on one rare occasion I pitched.

Baseball became my passion as did collecting baseball cards, playing tackle football without pads, riding my Huffy bike, eating newly introduced candy like Nerds, and playing my Atari 2600 video-game console. Studying took a back seat to all of the above activities and the only thing I studied intensely was the video game Donkey Kong. But baseball was my sanctuary, as was art class. I was never a good artist but liked perspective, colors, history, and design. I always stayed in art class for extra time and listened to music.

In 2023, my dad randomly said to me, "By the way, you had a scholarship to play baseball at Edinboro University in Erie, Pennsylvania." I replied, "Dad, why didn't you tell me?" He said, "You wouldn't have studied." I replied, "Dad, I didn't study anyways!" He retorted, "Yeah, that's true." The truth is that I didn't have the discipline or the talent to be a professional baseball player. My applications for college landed me at a Penn State University satellite campus for two years and then the school's main campus in State College, Pennsylvania. At the end of my second year of college, I decided to pursue a degree in marketing, as my grades were too low to choose finance. Studying was never one of my strongest points during my college years. I was more interested in volleyball, tennis, dancing, music, fashion, comedy, and shooting pool. I graduated in January of 1994 with a 2.52 grade point average (GPA), meaning I was a "C" student. My grades were average, but my GPA in my marketing classes was above 3.40 in total. For some reason, I enjoyed classes about buyer behavior, product cycles, aesthetics of package design, and marketing in general. Within the subjects of pizza and chocolate, I acquired my PhD many years later.

Once I left college, the realities of finding a job hit me, and soon I was working at a TGI Friday's restaurant for a few months. In January 1995, I was hired by PNC Bank in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as a call center representative wearing a suit and tie. By 1997, I was with PNC Brokerage as a customer service representative, and passed my Series 6 and Series 7 licenses, meaning I could execute trades for customers who called into our service center. I was also announcing what the daily Dow Jones and NASDAQ closings were on a recorded telephone line. In April 1999, I was let go by PNC Brokerage and my career path changed.

In 2000, I found myself back in the restaurant business as a bartender-waiter. One day at the restaurant, I made a partnership with a co-worker listing items on eBay to try making extra money. Karl Salvini photographed the items I purchased, and I would list them on the site. The first item I bought was a leather jacket from "WU-Wear," which was designed by the rap group WU Tang Clan from New York City. The jacket was a little gaudy but well made and it sold for three times what I paid for it! This sparked a new venture for me, and I started selling men's clothing on eBay. All of my auctions started at one cent and included dress shirts, belts, pants, boots, tie clips, and neckties all new. I sourced from many stores like Neiman Marcus and TJ Maxx, and put my marketing skills to use that I learned in school with my eBay listings. The photographs I posted were all shot by me using a Sony 3.2 megapixel digital camera. Neckties were a failure at first but quickly became my specialty, and I sold over 12,000+ over an eight-year span! I don't wear ties myself often but absolutely love colors and there are certain patterns that visually enamor me. I became well versed in luxurious-feeling fabrics like cashmere as well as fine wools and cottons selling pieces with fancy labels such as Hermes, Dunhill, Charvet, Emenegildo Zegna, Kiton, and Duchamp.

Another designer I sold was Giorgio Armani and I would write a short paragraph about him in my eBay descriptions. For example, Armani went to medical school and ended up becoming a fashion designer. Auction website eBay was where the start of my career as a writer began. I would learn about some of the struggles these artists faced as well and these stories would inspire me. My father, mother, and brother helped me run this micro business while I was working in a restaurant. I didn't make much money from this business but it allowed me creative freedom and I loved shooting picturesque photography. It was in 2007 when I bought my first graded world coins from eBay, and I didn't know anything about world coins. The pictures of the coin were cool so I bought them for myself. I knew my father was occasionally still buying U.S. Mint products but I didn't know a market existed for graded coins. When I managed the eBay clothing business, I always wondered how I could increase the average selling price of my products, and clothing seemed to be capped. Coins would soon become "The Answer," like professional basketball star Allen Iverson.

I started dabbling in coins from British India between 2008 and 2009 while I was working in the restaurant business. By 2010, I was out of money, and I wanted to leave the food service industry. I took a position with ADP (Automatic Data Processing) to sell workers' compensation insurance, and I got the job in September 2010. Later that September I got lucky with the sale of a coin in an auction, it changed my fortunes somewhat, and that piqued my interest in coins even further. Shortly after this sale, I passed both of my insurance exams with a score of 72%, 70% is passing, and the perpetual "C" student's journey continues. I found myself bringing my graded coins into work and showing them to my colleagues. Ironically, the head of the department, Denise Biehl, her father, was a numismatist! After six months, I made the decision to become a full-time coin dealer by resigning from ADP with the encouragement from my coin mentor Stephen Corvin. For several years, I sold coins on eBay, sold coins through Heritage Auctions, and by 2016 I was out of money, again. During this time, my friend/mentor Ron Milcarek encouraged me to stick with coins at my darkest hour. I started cataloging for Heritage Auctions in 2016 and reported to Matt Orsini, who is now the director of world and ancient numismatics at Stack's Bowers Galleries. In 2017, I started a new position as a coin trader with World Numismatics LLC, which was spearheaded by Kent Ponterio. I continued cataloging for Heritage Auctions on occasion and Stack's Bowers as well. In 2019, I parted ways with World Numismatics LLC, and started at a new position with an alternative grading service as a vintage world coin grader for 11 months. By April 2020, I was back in the job market, and I was referred to PCGS by a friend. After a few interviews, in July of 2020, I was hired by PCGS as a senior world content manager. My career started in the PCGS Set Registry, Cosetta Robbins helped me transition into this role and I am immensely grateful to her for her patient guidance. I was given the opportunity to write for PCGS by Editor-in-Chief Joshua McMorrow-Hernandez! Josh's support, encouragement, and professionalism has allowed me to continue my growth as a writer at PCGS. Soon, more opportunities would arise to collaborate with Senior Manager of PCGS Marketing Heather Boyd, Director of Sales Taryn Warrecker, and PCGS President Stephanie Sabin, as well as many others at PCGS.

I don't play baseball anymore but you might find me at Payne Park Tennis Center in Sarasota, Florida. Or maybe I'll be dancing salsa and bachata, which is a hobby for me just like coins. I also appreciate toned coins and collect them when I can find colorful examples that appeal to me. What I have learned in numismatics the past 15+ years is immeasurable. I've been able to learn more about the arts, music, history, and sharpen my marketing skills. My knowledge base of coins has grown beyond British India from my earlier years in coins.

Because of coins, my interest in reading has increased exponentially, and I read books to my dad at night. Relationships that I have had in the past continue to grow and I get to meet new people as well. My mentors, which there are too many to name, have guided me properly, and I've been lucky to have them in my life. Mom still gets to hear about my coin stories, which she tolerates, and so does my dad's caretaker Adela. The journey in numismatics continues, my knowledge base grows, and I get to work with exceptionally talented folks at PCGS. Had it not been for my co-workers' support, I would not have been able to make the contributions I have made to PCGS so far. Working alongside folks at PCGS has also allowed me to grow in many respects and for that I am grateful. In addition, I was able to turn my hobby into a career which is pretty cool!