About Us

Carsley Whetstone is a combination of two great Montreal firms; Carsley a coin store operating since 1928, and Thompson & Whetstone founded in the 1980’s.

The Carsley story began in 1928 when Alexander Carsley opened a store selling many items, including vintage coins. Soon the coin section became the most popular part of his store, and his business grew over the decades. Over the years the store was relocated a few times at different addresses on St-Catherines Street. In the 1980’s he sold the business to his assistant Jose Reis who helped grow Carsleys into one of Montreal’s largest coin shops. Carsleys has a reputation selling some of the rarest Canadian coins, including the 1921 50 Cents, the only known 1944 Tombac nickel, and many of the rarest Canadian Colonial tokens. In 1994 Mr. Reis passed away, and his wife and sister in law took over the day to day operation of the store.

The Thompson & Whetstone story began in the early 1980’s, when a partnership was formed between Morley Thompson and William Whetstone. Both were very knowledgeable buyers and valuators of antiques, jewellery, and coins. They established an office downtown in the Drummond building, and ran a successful business for 2 decades. In 1999 Mr. Thompson retired from the business, and Mr. Whetstone along with Odile Flaschner, and Roy Sturgeon (as a consultant) took over the operations.

In August 1999, Mr. Whetstone purchased Carsleys, the two companies were merged, and operations were amalgamated at our current address...and Carsley Whetstone was formed. During this time Michael Joffre, began to work part-time as an advisor for the newly merged company. He helped develop a web presence, and market their services online. As well, he provided expertise relating to pop-culture, and numismatic (coins) collectibles. In 2005 he decided to pursue his interest in numismatics full time by buying the company. In the years since Carsley Whetstone has expanded in size several fold, and is now serving our thousands of customers locally, and online.

We are a well known Montreal numismatic firm, and have been in the same building for over 30 years.

We are proud of our 96+ year heritage, and look forward to serving our clients for years to come.

Our Staff

Michael Joffre is a lifelong collector and dealer. Before joining CWC, he was an investment advisor with Merrill Lynch, and National Bank of Canada. His areas of expertise include all aspects of coins and paper money, as well as many “pop-culture” collectibles such as comic books and trading cards. As President for 19 years, he has overseen the purchase and sale of tens of millions of dollars of rare coins and estate jewellery.

Mr. Joffre is our head buyer, and is actively involved in almost all purchases from the public. His philosophy is to give clients professional, efficient service, and to make sure everyone gets treated fairly.

Coins are not just a profession for our president. He is also an active collector and researcher of the medieval coins of Europe, Canadian Tokens, and Medals, and has a strong interest in coins from ancient Greek times to present. His credentials include:

Association Memberships - Past & Present

Lifetime member of the Royal Canadian Numismatic Association
Lifetime member of the American Numismatic Association
President Lakeshore Coin Club
President Montreal Numismatic Society
Director of the Canadian Banking Memorabilia Society
Member of the Association des Numismates et des Philatelistes de Boucherville
Member La Societe Numismatique de Quebec
Member Canadian Paper Money Society
Member Ottawa Coin Club
Member Ontario Numismatic Association
Member International Bank Note Society
Member Medal Collectors of America

Printed Works - Past & Present

Pricing advisor and contributor to the Charlton Standard Catalogue; Canadian Coins, Canadian Government Paper Money, Canadian Tokens, Canadian Bank Notes.
Contributor to World Hallmarks (Vol.1 Europe), 2009
Contributor to World Hallmarks (Vol.2 Asia, Middle East, Africa), 2016
Contributor to French Coinage Specifically for North America, 2015
Contributor to Anglo-Gallic Coins, 2016
Columnist for the Montreal Times - Coin Collecting.
Columnist for the Senior Times - Coin Collecting

Media

TV - Global News
Full page profile in Canadian Coin News
Front page article Montreal Gazette business section
Frequently quoted in many coin related newspaper, & magazine articles

Lecturer

Former annual guest lecturer at Ecole de Gemmologie de Montreal; “Determining Market Values for Estate Jewellery”
Dozens of lectures at local and out of town coin clubs. Topics include French Regime Coinage, coins of the Hundred Years War, and many others

Lucy Raposo is our office manager. Her story with Carsleys began in 1976 as a part timer in the store. She continued to work at Carsleys, eventually full time, assuming different roles. When the store was merged with Thompson & Whetstone in 1999 she was an important member of the team in helping the two companies smoothly amalgamate. Having worked at the company for decades, she is familiar with past customers, and our companies history. She is also an experienced coin & jewelry buyer.

Alex Bergeron joined us full-time in 2012, during a period when we had a retail operation on the 9th floor of our building. Alex brings to the team strong computer skills, and a love and vast knowledge of comic books. He helps run our online business, especially our ever growing eBay store. He also manages our social media including our Facebook page.

Barry Uman is the oldest “new member” of our team. He is a coin collector, researcher, and writer of many published works, and has been a collector for over 65 years. Barry is a fellow of the C.N.R.S & R.C.N.A. as well as an active member of many local and international numismatic organizations. He assists us part time, helping catalog Canadian Tokens, and Medals, and works with us at local and out of town shows

View our history!

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Visit our online coin museum!