W.E. Mowrey Review

W.E. Mowrey is a precious metals refinery and bullion dealer based at 1435 University Avenue in Saint Paul, Minnesota. Founded in 1899 by William Edwin Mowrey, it has operated at this University Avenue location since 1911.

Today it sells gold, silver, platinum, palladium, and dental alloys, and buys scrap gold, silver, jewelry, and dental gold directly from the public.

This review covers what the company offers, how its pricing and services compare to national online bullion dealers, and what to expect if you buy or sell with them.

Key Takeaways

• W.E. Mowrey has operated in St. Paul, Minnesota since 1899, making it one of the older precious metals refiners still doing business in the Midwest.
• The company sells bullion coins and bars and also buys scrap gold, silver, platinum, and dental gold with same-day payment.
• Pricing is tied to live spot prices, and commercial customers can lock in rates up to five business days in advance.

Company History

William Edwin Mowrey started the business on Robert Street in St. Paul in 1899. He built a line of dental alloys as a way to use the gold he refined, which tied the company to Minnesota's dental industry early on.

The business moved to University Avenue in 1911 and has stayed there since. Ownership has changed four times, but the location and the core refining work have remained constant.

That's a long run for a small, regional refiner. Most bullion companies people encounter online today (APMEX, JM Bullion, SD Bullion) were started in the 2000s. Mowrey predates all of them by roughly a century.

What They Sell

The product lineup covers the standard bullion categories plus a few specialty items tied to the company's refining background.

The gold shot product is worth calling out separately. It's aimed at jewelry makers and goldsmiths who need raw material for casting or alloying, not at typical bullion investors.

That's a niche most big online dealers don't bother stocking, and it reflects Mowrey's roots as a working refinery rather than a pure sales operation.

Buying Bullion From Mowrey

If you're shopping for coins or bars, Mowrey runs a standard e-commerce storefront with listed prices tied to spot. Inventory includes common items like PAMP 1 oz gold bars and platinum bars from Argor-Heraeus, along with numismatic pieces such as graded Saint-Gaudens double eagles.

Prices move with the market, so listed prices change from week to week depending on where gold spot lands.

The company advertises lower premiums than some larger national retailers, though premiums shift daily and are worth comparing at the time of purchase.

Selling Your Gold, Silver, or Dental Scrap

This is where Mowrey's identity as a refiner, not just a shop, matters. If you've got old jewelry, silverware, coins, or dental crowns sitting in a drawer, you can bring them in and get tested on the spot. Payment happens the same day.

That's a real advantage over mail-in gold buyers, where you ship your items off and wait, hoping the offer that comes back is fair.

Watching your material get weighed and assayed in person removes a lot of the uncertainty that mail-in services carry.

Dental gold gets its own service page on the site. Dentists and individuals with old crowns or bridges can sell directly rather than going through a middleman, which fits, since Mowrey's original business in 1899 was built around dental alloys.

The company has a century of practical experience judging alloy composition, useful when someone hands over a mixed batch of old dental work with no documentation.

Pricing Structure and Spot Lock-Ins

Live spot prices for gold and silver are posted at the top of the website and update regularly.

For commercial customers, Mowrey offers lock-in pricing: you can call up to five business days ahead and secure the current spot rate for a future transaction.

This matters more for businesses (dental labs, other refiners, jewelers moving larger volumes) than for someone selling a single ring, since it protects against price swings between the day you agree to a deal and the day the metal actually changes hands.

For everyday retail sellers, pricing is based on the spot rate at the time of transaction, minus whatever margin the refinery applies for testing, handling, and resale.

That's standard across the industry. No refiner pays full spot for scrap, since they have to cover assay costs and the risk of impurities.

Dental Alloys: A Specialty Niche

Few gold buyers double as dental alloy manufacturers, but Mowrey does both, and the connection goes back to the company's founding. The alloys are formulated for castability and fit in crowns, bridges, inlays, and onlays.

This is a business-to-business product line aimed at dental labs and dentists, sitting on the same site as consumer bullion. It's an unusual combination, but it makes sense once you know the history. The dental alloy business came first. The bullion storefront came later, built on top of an existing refining operation.

Trade Associations

Mowrey lists memberships with several industry groups, including the Minnesota Dental Lab Association, the International Precious Metals Institute, the Minnesota Dental Association, and the National Association of Dental Laboratories.

These aren't proof of quality by themselves, but they show the company operates within recognized industry frameworks rather than as an unaffiliated shop buying gold on the side.

Pros and Cons

Buying or selling with a regional refiner has tradeoffs compared to a large national online dealer. Here's how it breaks down:

Pros:

• Same-day cash payment for scrap gold, silver, and dental gold brought in person
• Over a century of refining experience, with in-house assay capability rather than outsourced testing
• Dental alloy manufacturing gives the company technical depth beyond simple bullion resale
• Spot price lock-ins available for commercial buyers planning ahead

Cons:

• Storefront is limited to the St. Paul/Minneapolis area, so in-person selling isn't an option for most of the country
• Online bullion inventory and selection is smaller than large national dealers like APMEX or JM Bullion
• Website doesn't publish live buy-back rates or margin percentages, so sellers need to call or visit to get an actual quote

How It Compares to National Online Dealers

Large online bullion retailers win on selection and shipping convenience. You can order thousands of coin and bar variations and have them delivered anywhere in the country.

What they can't offer is a face-to-face assay of your grandmother's silverware or a same-day cash payment for a box of mismatched jewelry. Mowrey fills that regional, in-person niche.

If you're a Minnesota resident with scrap to sell, or a dental lab that needs alloy and gold recovery in the same relationship, a local refiner with over a hundred years of operating history carries different value than a warehouse in another state.

If you just want the lowest online price on a 1 oz gold bar shipped to your door, compare Mowrey's price against two or three national competitors first, since premiums vary week to week.

Contact Information

Conclusion

W.E. Mowrey is a legitimate, long-running regional refiner with real strengths in dental alloys, in-person scrap buying, and spot-price lock-ins for commercial clients.

For anyone outside the Twin Cities looking purely for the lowest online bullion price, it's worth comparison shopping first, but for local sellers with gold, silver, or dental scrap, the same-day, face-to-face transaction is hard to match.