Best Of

After a grueling 12-minute drive from the show, I arrived home from the CSNS show today, leaving plenty of time for some yard work in the afternoon. While it was a fairly busy show, I found myself with plenty of time to visit with people Friday and Saturday. I spent some time chatting with @Desert Moon at his table (as well as while he was hiding from a non-customer). He was trying to replenish coins as he was selling them. John Dannreuther's two-part volume on silver proof coins is now shipping. I saw a picture of a couple pallets of cases of books parked in his driveway. Final delivery was by forklift. I spent some time chatting with David McCarthy at Kagin's. I don't really have to say "show me something cool" anymore. He just pulls that stuff out when I get there. A few of his coins end up in my calendars as a result.

Friday, I found myself in a discussion with John Agre (CRO) about the 2nd law of thermodynamics as it relates to the USPS. Just as the entropy in the universe in increasing, so it is with the USPS. Eventually all packages will end up in an unknown state within their system where it is no longer recoverable -- lost, missing, or stolen for the most part. One could say this is because any physical process can only add entropy to the system it acts upon. Moreover, eventually everything of any value will find itself being shipped somewhere. As the universe ages, all matter will reach maximum entropy, and eventually just decay into either photons or disappear into a missing package in a figurative black hole of a USPS processing and distribution center.

There was a bit of excitement on Friday for people in the back of the hall in the higher numbered aisles. Apparently a couple kids were trying to sell a certified gold cob. They were quickly made by the dealer (Cabbage Coins), who stalled them long enough to be able to confirm with Dan Sedwick that the coin was stolen and contact the police, who later apprehended them when they returned to attempt to close the deal.

One of the first people to show up at our table on Saturday was someone trying to sell counterfeit Forever stamps for $10 a roll. I'm hoping someone was able to record his unguarded attempts.

Newps? Yes. I had the opportunity to upgrade my broadstruck 21-S Morgan from an AU58 to an MS62 that I liked better. Got it from Jon Sullivan.

I also spotted a 1938 proof WLH in PCGS 66 CAC that I liked at the Stack's Marketplace table. Not sure if they were just rolling out the Marketplace this week, but the premise is you can leave an offer and they'll get back to you when they accept or reject it. It doesn't work that well on a bourse floor, because someone at the show can't give you an immediate response. You have to wait for an email which never came, but after a few hours I nagged them about it and they said my offer was accepted. Clearly, they have some bugs to work out, but at the end of the day I got this.

Well...TECHNICALLY, Colombian gold is still "American"

(yeah, yeah, I know...)

I don't know that you can call it a "Coin show", but this is as close as I get. Years ago at a mall in Sioux Falls a coin dealer was set up in the mall. He had around 50 "Special" 1909-S Indian Head Cents for sale. What made them special was you could see where he spot welded the "s" on each coin. When I called him a crook and pointed out how fake his "Newly discovered variety" coins were he called security. They threw me out instead of him. James