I was pleasantly surprised by this shop found on 4th Avenue in downtown Anchorage. It's in the main area for tourist shops, but its local's favorite spot as well. It's the only jewelry / gold supplier in Alaska that I know of, who buys their own nuggets and produces their own jewelry and gold collectible / investment items. I've been in here a few times, and each time- I've been impressed.
Most recently I entered the shop on the 29th of December and was promptly greeted by one employee asking if she could help me find anything. I told her I was just looking and she politely left me alone. I later returned and asked if they had gold bars on display. One of the ladies working quickly and happily showed me to the gold bar she had available, and gave me about a 15 minute speech on Alaska Mint's products including all of their Alaskan coins, US coins, and other investment items. She went so far as to let me hold the bar of gold. She then proceeded to show me around the rest of the shop, introducing me to items that I didn't realize Alaska Mint carried.
Alaska mint has an array of jewelry items featuring a ton of Alaskan-harvested materials. They have jade, amber, gold, silver, soapstone, quartz, rose quartz- and others that I'm sure I'm forgetting. Everything in this store is beautiful quality and you'll find both traditional and more modern pieces. There are plenty of gorgeous items with an Alaskan theme behind them, but also many items that feature less-location-based designs.
One of the most unique (and popular) items they carry are raw gold nuggets. Each nugget comes with a certification from the Alaska Mint stating that it's real gold as well as a bit of info on Alaska's gold industry. It also comes with a map of Alaska with a little red 'x' on the place where that particular nugget was found.
This place is FULL of beautiful items, but it's well organized and all of the displays beautifully showcase everything in a way that is easy to view. They have something for everyone's taste and the employees are eager to help and very kind. I wasn't necessarily dressed in high class clothing when I arrived at this shop, but that didn't deter the employees from giving me a fair amount of attention and showing me all they had to offer. The fact they took me seriously as a customer, even though I didn't appear to be someone who'd buy something, did not go unnoticed. That kind of service is always 5 stars in my book, but the fact that they also carry an array of high quality, beautiful, local-to-Alaska items just made them all the better. read more