Coins, Rodman, Jockeys, Jesse; Big Player in Downtown Brea

I brought two small plastic bags of coins,one with silver dollars, the other, old nickels. After all, it was a nickel that made entrepreneur Dwight Manley $1 million richer.

As Manley sat at his desk in Newport Beach, he looked at the nickels. Nothing. He pulls out one of the silver dollars and surprises me: It’s worth about $75, he said.

Manley is what’s known as a numismatist,a student of coins. He became part of coin-collecting history after selling his 1913 Liberty Nickel in 2003 for a then-record $3 million. He bought it in 2001 for $1.84 million.

“I love the history,” he said. “I love holding things that people held. To me they’re like time machines.”

The fascination with coins is part of a larger love of money. Manley knows money’s history, and he’s good at earning and investing it.

The way he makes money could be called counterintuitive, even eccentric. Manley’s a former agent to basketball bad boy Dennis Rodman. He’s also a developer, coin dealer, sunken treasure buyer and head of the Monrovia-based Jockeys’ Guild, to name a few.

“I like anything creative,” he said. “The biggest thing: I just want to make a difference.”

Money isn’t the motivator, according to Manley. It’s relationships: “To me, it’s personal.”

Manley said he’s collected coins since he was a boy, when he found a valuable 1909 Lincoln penny in a coffee can. He still has the cent, as it’s called in coin lingo.

“My parents got divorced, and I really got into collecting,” he said. “It’s in my blood.”

Brea Boy

Manley spent his youth in Brea kicking around a neighborhood coin shop. The owner died and the shop closed. Manley now owns the site, home to a Yard House restaurant.

At 15, he worked at Fullerton Coins