Best Of

@CaptHenway said:

"Is the Franklin Mint making these now???"

One of my Favorite proof sets,73 Barbados was done by the Franklin mint.

Awesome! It's great to connect with people over a common interest and leave "work" out of it!

So glad you've treated yourself to this, Mark. You deserve it! Wished I could have attended and seen you once again.

The only thing that I would have loved to read would have been you finding a coin that made you want to own it. I still hold out hope that you'll participate as a collector one day as you wind down your career.

I've always thought it was the collectors who made this hobby interesting and fun with coins taking a back seat.
Great show report Mark, thanks for sharing your insights.

Mark….as you are an expert grader, do you ever see coins when walking around and feel they would be a real bargain due to undergrading? I wish I had the knowledge to spot the nice coins…but alas I have to go with what I see on the slabs…. Have fun!

That's the best show report I have ever read.

Our metal disks come and go and must eventually find new homes with strangers. Meanwhile, if we are lucky, our lives are enriched by a handful of true friendships that are born out of collecting

Yesterday I attended the WFOM show, which is the first large show I've attended, and only the second show (the first being in Grapevine TX) that I've ever attended. I still consider myself a novice collector, so take my comments with a grain of salt.

I was really impressed with the show. From my perspective, it looked well-attended with lots of buzz. It was great fun wandering among all the tables and talking with selected dealers. I got to meet Dan Carr (I have his 2022 Morgan dollar coins - I know I'm supposed to call them "tokens", but I call them coins), as well as some international dealers that I wanted to meet.

With previous advice from members on this forum, I decided to be a 2x20 collector (2 boxes with a maximum of 20 coins each). For my Morgan box, I was looking for a 1878-CC and found a great one. So success on that front. The focus of my second box is French 20-franc coins, and I was looking for a specific coin from 1803. I was unsuccessful on this front, but I learned something that will be obvious to most of you but was new to me.

Several international dealers had reduced or no inventory at show. In talking with them, I learned that some of these dealers carry their inventory with them when they travel to the show. Others ship at least part of their inventory. The dealers I spoke to said that, in their experience, US customs staff and shipping services staff (eg, Fedex) are unclear about how to implement the new US tariff laws. So even though coins are exempt from the tariffs, there's still the risk that someone will try to apply a tariff when the coins enter the country. Rather than take this risk or deal with the hassle, they chose to bring less or no inventory to the show. So collectors of non-US coins who have attended previous shows might find less inventory at this show. That's unfortunate, but it is what it is.

Despite the preceding, I will repeat that I really enjoyed the show, and I hope all the dealers have a successful week!

Hi Mark, one of my regrets in not attending the WFOM show was that I wouldn't get to meet you in person. I hope to meet you at some show in the future.

Thanks for the update! Next time I'm in Dallas you can give me a tour of Heritage.