Day 3 at FUN

spacehayduke

Hi Folks,
Day 3 at FUN started off for me with going to Heritage lot viewing at 8 am. I only had 20 minutes, so I focused on 3 potential coins to bid on. Given how picky I have become, none of them worked for me. But quickly browsing through one box, I found one I loved, I already have one of these, but this one is better by far, everything there kind of coin. So looks like I may have another dupe in my future.

Then I went to the JRCS club meeting. The room was packed, probably around 40 attendees in a small room. This meeting is great, we each introduce ourselves and talk about what we collect, then we have a presentation. This time we had a fantastic presentation by Dave Finkelstein, with help from Chris Pilliod, on the silver to copper weight standard in early US silver coins. Many years of research with some analytical results on the compositions of early silver halves. It inspired great excitement and vibrant discussion, and even I got into it with my background on how to address some of the problems on where the silver and copper came from, how to trace lead used for processing versus lead that cam in the ore, etc. Really fun stuff.

Then off to the bourse for an hour before the PCGS luncheon. I kept scanning the bourse for a nice bust quarter that I needed. Nothing. Then at 11:15, off to the PCGS luncheon to meet up with ldhair and Bill Jones. We met a few other board members, some we knew, some we did not. At our table was Burdell, a rare poster that says he will be posting more in the future. He showed us some of his collection which was amazing stuff.
At the luncheon the new PCGS pres and Heather both made presentations, as did Greg Rohan from Heritage. The new PCGS admin are enthusiastic to change things alot, which they believe will be for the better. It was refreshing to see young excited people building what they believe will be a better future for their company. As you all know by now, Heather announced that all of those wonderful True View images on Coin Facts are going away, leaving only 3 for each coin at the highest grades. I hope there is a compromise in there that can bring most of them back.

After the PCGS luncheon I met with UltraHighRelief and went through his and my coins. He has a fantastic inventory right now and just about every coin I pulled out was 'ooh' 'ah' 'wow' etc. I sold him some of my nice dupes, but given my focus on die marriages for bust quarters, all of the nice ones he has available, alas, I already had.

Afternoon was spent on the bourse scanning the floor for bust quarters. At about 5:15 I finally found one at Wayne Herndon's table. It was a nicely and naturally toned 1836 B6, in P45 CAC. I already have one in P40 CAC in the same die state, but after walking the bourse for 2 days I wanted to come back with something for my core set. It had a wonderful deep toned look that was clearly a never messed with coin with underlying rich luster, and adds to my collection for that appearance alone. The kind of coin CAC loves, the kind of coin I love. So hey, what is a dupe in my core set when it is so nice. And I paid around 70% of what it would have cost last year. I can deal with that.

Then it was off to the NGC cocktail social. Met up with Bill and ldhair and we listened to one of their head graders talk about grading at NGC. Was very interesting and impressive and the NGC folks are a great bunch. I am keeping all of my tokens in NGC holders and glad to see their presentation. I also saw one of their graders, the one that grades my Conder tokens, in the room, was nice to see the NGC group.

After the NGC social I finished the day meeting up with about a dozen of the board members here for some drinks at the Lobby Bar in the Rosen Center Hotel. I hope I remember everyone that was there and if I don't, please chime in. There was Bill Jones, ldhair, Keigwin, Dimeman, Burdell, Amwldcoin, Bolivarshagnasty, Insider2, Crazyhounddog and his son Crazy junior, and some others where my memory is escaping me right now. We are all very happy to see CHD in great spirits, and put names to faces for those we did not know. Everyone who had not met Bill yet were happy to meet him as he provides us all so much learning on these boards. Nice time with all and I hope we can expand it to more board members next year. We are all hoping for the best for Crazy's recovered collection from Paradise, which they lugged in big bags all the way from California to hand off to NGC and PCGS for conservation and grading, and removal of alot of melted plasctic. Both at the luncheon and the cocktail social both companies acknowledged this tragedy for CHD and how they would help. At the luncheon Heather pointed out how well our community here did by doing what we could for CHD and his family , so a big thanks goes out to Heather for this.

So that is it, I will scan the bourse for a few more hours today before leaving on a jet plane. Don't know when I will be back again but for sure next FUN. I will post images when I get back home.

Best, SH

ebaytrader

Hemispherical

Awesome you definitely made the rounds on this day! Thanks for taking the time to post after this long day.

logger7

Thanks for a real numismatic presentation, would have like to be there!

ldhair

Great report. It was a really fun day.

Walkerguy21D

Really enjoyed this post - thanks for the wonderful write up!

Smudge

Nice report, thanks.

EastonCollection

I was good seeing you at the show. I thought that there was a fair amount of excitement on the floor. Flew in for a few hours from NYC in the am and left at the end of the show to get home at bedtime. My wife didnt know I went to the FUN show - thought that i was a work. All good.

UltraHighRelief

Great to see you again!

MoneyMonkey1

I enjoyed the NGC social last night. I sat with Crazyhounddog and his son . The pictures of the Paradise fire on his phone were unimaginable. They were so lucky to escape alive. He offered me a coin from the fire. It was such a nice gesture but I couldn't accept it from someone who lost so much. Its individuals like Crazyhounddog and his son that make this hobby so great.
I wish them the best.

TeamDennis

Thanks for sharing.Great post.

ricko

Another great 'day' report... Sounds like a really great day too.... Thanks, Cheers, RickO