About Us

Phil has a longstanding passion for collecting (or hoarding if you ask his wife) but was slow to jump into the world of silver and coin collecting.  He dabbled in coins as a child but it was only international coins given to him by his parents or family from their travels. He can recall being quite intrigued by the Canada 125 quarter series. He moved onto sports cards, pogs and then magic cards; there always seemed to be something. In his teens and young adult years he began to amass a huge collection of vintage video games and systems. He would scour the classifieds and local buy and sell magazines before the days of Kijiji. That collection sat in storage for the last few years until he sold it to help fund the dream of Pheli Mint.  He also sold his Victory motorcycle granted he wasn’t getting much use out of it with the growing family.

Phil was told for many years by his wise financial advisor the importance of holding physical silver or gold and other real assets like land and property. Finally viewing and holding the silver in one of his other friend’s stacks was enough to get him started. Once Eli was interested too, it was so much more fun to share our passion together. It was never about stacking for weight but for the artistic beauty of the rounds and silver.

For a period he dabbled in numismatics, working diligently in building up a high grade year set of large and small Canadian Cents.  Phil quickly found the amazing products from the Royal Canadian Mint and all the beautiful but expensive products they have. From this he made the transition into semi-numismatics. It started with year’s sets of the Canadian Maple leafs, Australian Kookaburras and Koalas, then very slowly into Chinese pandas, to all the other sovereign bullion.  After getting his first Freedom Girl round from Silver Bullet Silver Shield (SBSS), he was hooked on privately minted bullion and this became his passion.

Phil would spend hours searching for all the unique designs he could find and more information about the mints. Once he got his hands on the Destiny Coin, it all started to come together. He had to convince Eli to make their own unique rounds with designs that were meaningful to them and they would want in their collections. He also wants to share his knowledge and passion for semi-numismatics and the small private mints with others.

Eli's journey into numismatics and precious metal collecting began on a whim. It was a late night in Fort Hope, Ont. where a random discussion took place (with who else, but Phil) about the value of precious metals. In a futuristic scenario of market collapse, current currency would have no value, and precious metals could be used as tender to pay for goods and services. Physical bullion in your possession would allow you to support yourself and family through such an event.  Adding to the discussion that precious metals like silver and gold are a stable investment in our current society, made Eli quite interested at looking into this further.

It was a matter of days later that Eli placed his first order online with a shopping cart brimming with products. After his first unboxing experience, he was hooked! It was a combination of many things that captivated him: the designs, finishes and lustre, the value and preparedness it offers. Oddly enough, the thing that struck Eli the most was the weight. Even after a few years of collecting, the heavy weight still impresses him.

Initially, Eli would say he collected more numismatic pieces from online, sticking with major retailers. His focus was collecting low-mintage items and completing sets.  With a collector mindset, he was drawn to artistic design and rarity.  As time went on, he began to find privately-minted items more and more appealing due to their value and uniqueness.  Different themes and designs offered at competitive prices started a new avenue of collecting. Along with this shift in his collection was a new mindset of stacking: quality and quantity.  Eli had a new appreciation for bars to increase silver quantity, and silver rounds for interest and artistic quality.

Moving forward, he sees himself continuing to collect this way as a two-pronged method: first, as long-term financial diversification and secondly, as a collection of fine artwork and memories.  He feels nearly each piece in his collection tells a story; with beautiful artwork, a point in time during his life, or of interesting people he has met along his stacking journey.

Pheli Mint to Eli, is an exciting opportunity to follow this passion with his best friend.  His vision is to build an honest, transparent brand established within the niche community offering high quality silver products appealing to collectors and stackers just like himself.