From Mine to Mint: Pawn Stars' Rick Harrison Talks Gold, Silver, and Collectibles

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1. Ownership and Share Structure Information

The information listed above was updated on the date this article was published and was compiled from information from the company and various other data providers.

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When we recently sat down with Rick Harrison of Pawn Stars, the conversation didn't stop at the pawn counter. In our first conversation, the owner of the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop told us his shop had just posted its best quarter in a decade and laid out why he thinks pawn shops are "the canary in the coal mine" for the broader economy. 

In this second installment, we go deeper into the metals themselves.

Gold and Silver

Rick Harrison's pawn shop is called the World Famous Gold & Silver Pawn Shop for a reason. When asked why Gold & Silver was the name of his shop, Harrison explained, "Gold is a psychological thing. China is buying massive amounts of gold because they want to be the world's currency; they want to topple the dollar." He went on to say, "Gold gives a lot of confidence," especially in these turbulent times.

"There's been no paper currency that's lasted over like 80 or 90 years in the history of the world. We've been using gold for around 6000 years," but gold lasts the test of time. No matter what, people seem to go back to gold.

Harrison isn't the only one seeing this trend. J.P. Morgan forecasts gold demand pushing prices toward US$5,000/oz by year-end 2026, averaging around US$5,055/oz in the final quarter and rising toward US$5,400/oz by the end of 2027. The World Gold Council reported that Q1 gold demand rose modestly year-over-year to 1,231t while value surged to a record US$193bn, with bar and coin investment driving gains and central banks continuing to buy in healthy size. Yahoo Finance is also keeping an eye on gold. In a recent May article, they wrote that gold's movement in the last year "has been nothing short of . . . dazzling." The article pointed to the rise in gold price between May 2025 and May 2026, from US$3,335 to US$4,732/oz, stating, "Gold analysts believe gold will hold its value and its price may even go up this year due to ongoing worldwide conflicts and economic uncertainty."

As for silver, Harrison opined that while it is an investment metal, "the majority of silver is now an industrial metal."

He said, "There is nothing in the world that conducts electricity better than silver. These data centers are using thousands of ounces alone ... Silver sends the data quicker, and you can run higher voltage on it, so they've gotten to the point where they're making computer cables out of silver." Harrison also pointed out that solar panels need silver to run, as well as every electric car, and some of the most modern and efficient batteries on the market. 

"There's industrial demand for silver, and there are very few silver mines left in the world," Harrison commented. He also explained that silver is a residual metal. "If you mine copper, you're going to get a little silver on the side," he said.

While China has been buying more gold, as mentioned above, Harrison also believes it is influencing silver prices. "China has restricted all sales of sulfuric acid. They're the world's leading producer of sulfuric acid. You cannot refine copper, zinc, or lead without sulfuric acid. That is going to affect the mining of those three metals, and all three are a large part of the world's silver supply, as silver is a byproduct of mining those three metals."

The world seems to agree with Harrison. The Silver Institute wrote in a recent report that, " After posting its strongest annual performance since 1979 last year, silver prices continued to set new highs in 2026 . . . The metal reached multiple record levels in January, breaching the psychologically important US$100 level for the first time. As a result, the gold:silver ratio fell below 50, a level last seen in 2012. Silver then declined below US$80.00 but has since shown resilience, forming technical price support." The report stated that demand for the metal is likely to continue throughout the year. Another silver forecast from GoldSilver's 2026=2027 outlook wrote, "Silver is no longer a 'cheap, overlooked' metal waiting for its moment."

Rick Harrison wrapped up the conversation on gold and silver by noting that it has long been used as a safe-haven asset. "Gold and silver are really different from other investments, because you can just go in there and buy it; you don't have to have a brokerage account. If the internet goes down, you still have it, and no one can hack into it," he said. "Gold has always been a hedge against inflation . . . it's always been a store of wealth. I believe the main reason it's going up is that central banks around the world are just buying massive amounts." Harrison pointed out that China isn't the only country buying the metal. "A lot of smaller countries are buying gold, and one of the ways they finance buying that gold is they just print a bunch of money, and they end up buying the gold . . . the psychology of most economists is that if they printed money and bought gold then they got something for it, so they're not blowing it, so it generally doesn't lead to inflation that much . . . Gold is psychological, silver is really needed."

Collectable Coins

Naturally, the gold and silver conversation led us to discuss the world and gold and silver collectibles. Collectibles are the bread and butter of the pawn business. Harrison said that the collectible world has exploded over the past decade. 

"It is to the point where, if you're at a party, you talk to someone and ask them what they collect . . . That's indicative of a very well-off economy, if everybody's collecting. The grading companies, like NGC, PCGS, all the high-end grading companies have done so much for the collecting market, and it's also really spurred on collecting."

Harrison discussed how, when he began this business as a teenager, none of these NGC and PCG companies existed. He said, "If you bought a coin, you'd be arguing with the person exactly what the grade was, and things like that. And now there's no argument. You have really reputable companies; they give it a grade, people agree with it, and you can go from there. There's no arguing on the grade, and that has really helped out collecting, because now you're not afraid of getting ripped off."

He mentioned that his father opened a coin shop in Vegas in 1981, where he worked, which is where he learned what he knows now about coins. "Those old guys really knew the coin business. That's how I learned all about coins. I've been doing it my whole life."

Who Makes the Coins?

The discussion then shifted from buying and grading coins to making them. We turned to Keith Neumayer of First Majestic Silver Corp. (AG:TSX; AG:NYSE; FMV:FSE), the Vancouver-based operator who runs silver mines but went a step further, striking his own silver bars and coins and capturing the premium that comes with putting a producer's name on the finished product.

First Majestic Silver Corp., founded in 2002, first moved into selling its own bullion through an online store in 2008, but it didn't begin minting its own product until much later. Building on that store, the company relaunched its retail operation in 2012 to sell silver bullion to customers and shareholders.

Its true in-house minting operation began with the launch of First Mint, LLC, a wholly owned facility in Nevada, on September 14, 2023, with commissioning completed and bullion sales commencing on March 26, 2024. The mint launched with a small, limited-edition lineup: the inaugural "First Strike" run consisted of three products — 1,000 one-kilogram bars, 2,500 ten-ounce bars, and 5,000 five-ounce bars — before ramping up to a steady supply of cast bars and one-ounce silver rounds.

And who buys these products? First Mint was created so First Majestic could sell a substantially greater portion of its silver directly to its shareholders and bullion customers, and strong performance has allowed the company to sell a larger share of its total silver production directly to those buyers.

Today, the mint offers 1-oz rounds plus 5-oz, 10-oz, and kilo bars, and the production line is designed to produce over 10% of the company's current silver production, with First Majestic itself producing a record 15.4 million ounces of silver in 2025.

While the company does not publish a precise annual coin count, the business is growing quickly: First Mint generated record quarterly sales of US$22.7 million in Q4 2025, up from US$9.1 million in the same quarter of 2024. 

Not only does the company have record growth, but it is led by a big name in the industry, Keith Neumeyer. 

Neumeyer is worth dwelling on here because First Majestic is a case study in how far a precious-metals story can travel. He founded the company in 2002 and listed it on the TSX Venture Exchange, where it traded as a penny stock (its shares bottomed at CA$0.87 in October 2008). One longtime observer described Neumeyer's achievement as taking First Majestic from penny-stock status to roughly CA$25 a share during the 2010–11 silver run, building a company with a multibillion-dollar valuation.

The trajectory since has been even more dramatic. As of early June 2026, First Majestic carried a market capitalization of more than US$10 billion (about CA$11.7 billion), having touched an all-time high of CA$43.69 in February 2026.

According to an updated research note by Analyst Heiko F. Ihle for H.C. Wainwright & Co. on May 12, First Majestic's stock continues to hold a Buy rating from H.C. Wainwright, with a slightly increased price target of US$30.75, up from US$30. 

On May 18, Chen Lin of What is Chen Buying? What is Chen Selling? remarked about the company: "From the longer-term point of view, silver had a perfect retracement to (the) US$75 area. This is a trend line support. I am buying silver here. I bought some silver futures to test the water. I am also buying back my former top silver position AG here and made (it) my number 3 silver producer. My top silver producers right now are Coeur Mining/Silvercorp Metals/AG right now. AG is now sitting on a perfect uptrend line and is trading at much lower prices than I sold early this year."

Newsletter writer Tavi Costa also commented on the company. On June 16, he wrote, "First Majestic offers one of the highest levels of silver exposure among senior producers, with a diversified portfolio of four operating mines that reduces single-asset risk while maintaining strong leverage to higher silver prices."

He continued, "For investors seeking a large-cap silver producer with meaningful torque to a higher silver price environment, First Majestic remains one of the purest and most liquid ways to express that view."

¹As things stand, 1.18% of First Majestic is owned by management and insiders. 54.58% is with institutional investors, and the rest is held by retail.

As of June 23, 2026, recent insider buying includes Keith Neumeyer, with 0.9% of the outstanding shares.

That model of a producer becoming its own minter raised a natural question: who actually does the striking when a company isn't doing it all themselves? Harrison pointed to Tom Power, the man behind Sunshine Minting, the largest private gold and silver mint in North America, before its recent acquisition. On April 2, 2026, Gold.com acquired the remaining 55.1% stake in Sunshine Minting in an all-cash transaction, bringing the company fully under its ownership. However, Tom Power remains with SMI as a special advisor.

"I've been to his factory where he had 13 million ounces of silver on the floor," Harrison said.

While Power no longer owns Sunshine Minting, he is still deeply involved in the gold business, and it is through him that the producer-as-minter idea comes full circle. Power is currently a director of Star Gold Corp., a Coeur d'Alene–based exploration company developing the Longstreet gold project in Nevada, and a significant shareholder in the company.

Star Gold, a company Harrison has personally invested in, closed a US$3.68 million private placement in February 2026, backed by names like the Myrmikan Gold Fund and 321 Gold's Bob Moriarty, to advance a project that now holds more than 213,000 gold-equivalent ounces of resources.

By Harrison's account, Star Gold is now planning to mint its own coin to give to certain investors, bringing the producer-as-minter idea full circle.

Star Gold

Star Gold Corp. (SRGZ:OTCQB) is a U.S.-focused precious metals development company advancing high-quality gold and silver assets in Nevada's Walker Lane Belt.

The company recently announced it had received exploration approval from the United States Bureau of Land Management (BLM) for its flagship Longstreet project in Nevada, U.S. You can read more about that here.

At the time of writing this article, Star Gold's stock was at US$0.1769.

²In a April 2026 technical analyst opinion piece, technical analyst Stewart Thomson gave the stock a Strong Speculative Buy rating and a short-term price target of US$0.20, which a potential advance toward US$0.40.

Harrison's interest in Star Gold isn't just professional curiosity; it's personal. He first visited the company's property back in 2013, and he's since become an investor.

"I actually invested a good chunk of money in Star Gold," he said, offering the disclosure up front. "I understand the geology and stuff like that. I used to refine gold." That background gave him a way into the company that most investors don't have: "I met with the geologist and everything . . .  so I've worked with them, and I actually invested with them."

What has him especially intrigued now is a project still taking shape; his understanding is that Star Gold, working with Lindsay and a board member who owns a mint, plans to produce a gold or silver coin to give to certain investors. Asked whether there's an appetite for something like that, Harrison didn't hesitate. "I think there is," he said. "Star Gold's an amazing company."

In Q2 2026, Star Gold will be finishing up water wells for the mining site, designing the leach pad site, and beginning additional drilling on the Main resource site.

The final permit to begin production is expected in Q3 or Q4 of 2027. 

¹Star Gold Corp. has a market cap of CA$25.69 million, with 191.7 million shares outstanding. The company's 52-week range is CA$0.007-CA$0.20.

Insiders and Management own 20.94% of shares, while Strategic Investors own 27.03%. The remaining 52.03% of shares are held by Retail.

According to the company, Lindsay Gorrill invested US$489,000 in the last February financing, showing ample insider buying.

Conclusion

If there's a thread running through Harrison's view of the metals, it's that gold and silver are doing two very different jobs.

Gold, in his telling, is psychological, a store of wealth that has outlasted every paper currency and that central banks around the world are now buying in massive size.

Silver is something else: a metal the modern economy increasingly can't function without, pulled in opposite directions by industrial demand and a supply chain that depends on byproduct mining and refining inputs like sulfuric acid.

What ties the two halves of the conversation together is the journey from raw metal to finished coin. It's a path that runs from the producers pulling silver and gold out of the ground, to the mints that strike it into bars and coins, to the collectors and grading houses that have turned that finished product into a thriving market of its own.

Companies like First Majestic, with its own First Mint operation, and explorers like Star Gold, weighing a commemorative coin of its own, show how blurred the line between miner and minter has become.

For Harrison, it all comes back to something simple. Gold and silver are assets you can hold in your hand, buy without a brokerage account, and keep when the internet goes down.

"Gold is psychological," he said, "silver is really needed." In a market shaped by central-bank buying, geopolitical uncertainty, and surging industrial demand, that distinction may matter more than ever.

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