87redcivic's 2019 Pittsburgh ANA Show Report

87redcivic

I'm local to south of the Pittsburgh area and don't really travel for coin shows. I when I heard that the ANA was doing a show at the convention center, I blocked out the date on my calendar in permanent black ink. This comes around to Pittsburgh roughly only once in a decade, and I wasn't going to miss it.

I used to work in downtown Pittsburgh. For the past couple years, I've been working east of the city. Since it was a beautiful day (for March), I decided to do a "walking tour" to see what had changed since I had last stomped around downtown. I parked in Station Square which is in the south part of the city. With my want list in hand, I walked my way north to the David Lawrence Convention Center.

This is my want list. I feel the need to almost apologize for it. I'm a reader of the message boards, and I've heard multiple times... "don't spread yourself too thin." I've been collecting since 2002, and I seem to pick up a new series every time I start feeling burned out on an old one. Or, I will switch back to an old series if I start feeling "the well is dry" on a category. This is the end result (shrug).

So although this is my "want list", I was only focusing on a few columns on the want list today. This was on my "real" want list today:

• • A 1937 Mirror Specimen Canadian dime for roughly $100 to $150 with good eye appeal to match the "Matte" one I already have.
• • A small diameter capped bust half dollar to fit into my Half Dollar type album with a good price/look ratio.
• • An early commem half dollar (maybe two) with a good price/look ratio.
• • Some nice seated or capped bust dimes to add to my album.
• • Anything that I saw that "jumped out of the case" that was listed on my want list as something I didn't have (i.e. a target of opportunity)
• • A little bit of 90% so I finish off a quarter roll I was building.
• • Some good pics so I could write a killer show report.

So, I walk across the Smithfield Street bridge like I used to do on my old "commute". There are two amazing things about the bridge:
1.) The gorgeous architecture of an old-school early designed steel bridge where they hadn't gotten all of the technology in place to make it simpler and stronger.
2.) That generations of city governments have spent the budget to keep the bridge in working order - and not given into the temptation to plow the whole structure over to build some concrete causeway.

After crossing the street, this is the view a few blocks up. Pittsburgh gothic.

On Smithfield Street there is a place called Bob's Subs. It was one of my usual go-to lunch spots. I miss that one.

After walking a few more streets, and noting a few places that have changed downtown, I get to the Convention Center.

So I start my first pass through the display cases and seeing if there was anything that "jumped out of the case" to me. I saw a couple of Early Commems that fit the bill. I also saw a 1937 Canadian Dime in a case that was marked for $25. The obverse looked really hammered and the rims were razor sharp. I asked to see it in the case, hoping that I was going to get a total score. Unfortunately, the reverse was a mushy strike. It was a good price for a BU, and an awesome price for an SP. No Santa Claus in that case. I saw some really great commem halves in some of the cases. I loved an 1925 California in an ANACS AU-58 in J.J. Teaparty's case. There were a couple of Iowa's in different cases that I would have walked away happy with. There was also a Bridgeport in one case with a light toning streak on the obverse that I thought gave it character. There was also a $60 1828 capped bust half that I was really tempted to pull the trigger on.

There was a super-super nice dealer that was giving out pressed cents. Thank your for the friendliness.

I ended up stopping at the table of a younger dealer from WV that had a mix of silver foreign and some 90% silver quarters for 11x face. I ended up getting the foreign for 11x as well (counting each as dimes). He was happy to blow it out. He explained that it wasn't normally his niche, but he got it as part of a package deal. I was happy to get some "fun" silver.

I overheard one dealer asking in vain if there was a good seafood place in Pittsburgh. I would have offered to help her, but unfortunately, Pittsburgh isn't known for it's seafood. I wouldn't recommend it's river-food either (catch and release only)... although the river quality has gotten much better since I was a kid.

This was the display from the Stack's Bowers table of an upcoming sale of Turban Head gold. Out of my league, but really really cool. It's amazing how extremely rare gems can look common for one second when put together like this... then realize that these are survivors of countless melts where there was a huge incentive to melt them at one point. That's a lot of dedication and $$$ to put something like this together.

The mint had a good display as well. My wife is going to buy me the two 2019 half dollars for Christmas and/or birthday. Pictured is one of four cases.

I ended stopping at a dealer that that had a red box full of raw bust and seated material. I ended up spending a lot of my cash there. Here's what I got for a total of $185:

They aren't completely problem-free, but that's ok. The surfaces on them aren't original, and the 1837 has some rim nicks. I'm not expecting perfection for unslabbed bust coinage. They have a lot of detail on them, the surfaces aren't "doa", and I am going to be happy having them in my Dansco albums.

I ended up leaving the show at about 1:30 with my stomach rumbling,. I walked to Market Square to eat at one of my other regular places. They had changed the menu, upped the prices, and renovated the place. It was good, but not as good as it once was. Nothing lasts forever. I was debating walking back to the show and picking up one of the commem halves I saw. I eventually decided that I had already a ton of fun and gotten some cool coins. Plus, the route I had taken (route 51) had a ton of construction on it, and I didn't want to hit rush-hour traffic. I had to take my son to soccer practice.

As a afterward, here is the 1833 in it's new home. This is the dime book I'm slowly building. It's a work in progress...but it is so fun building an album of coins over a long period of time.

ElmerFusterpuck

Awesome report, made me feel like I went there! How was the attendance and were there some empty tables?

Tibor

First of all, Welcome to the forum!! You gave us a great show report.
The Capped Bust coinage looks neat. Great buy on the 90%!!
Your Dime collection looks really nice. Thanks for the report and
sharing the pics.

bronzemat

Great report and pics, thanks for sharing.

87redcivic

There were a few empty tables. The convention center itself is so massive that it sort of shrinks everything else by comparison. The good part about that was there was lots of room in the aisles.

IMO the show wasn't "dead" like other shows I've been to. It wasn't "electric" either. I was hoping to pick up some coin supplies at the show, but there wasn't a dealers selling those. One picture I wish I would have taken is the massive bin of loose large cents that one of the dealers had. $15 each. I didn't want to add another column to my want list spreadsheet, but it looked like a ton of fun for those digging through that big pile of copper.

I also stopped at the exhibition section of the show (no pics from there). I overheard a few people saying that the quality of each of the exhibitions was so similar that they had a hard time voting for the best one. I'd have to agree with that. I could tell that a lot of care had gone into each of the presentations.

Hemispherical

Thanks for the tour and show report @87redcivic.

thebeav

I really liked your 185 dollar bust deal !

TheRaven

Looking forward to being there tomorrow.

snizzle

Great show report
Thanks

giorgio11

Yay, new member who knows his stuff and is not a troll! Great report and many welcomes to the forum!

Kind regards,

George

Raybob15239

I work in downtown Pittsburgh, so I took an extended lunch break and walked down to the show for a couple of hours on Thursday. The bourse floor was pretty full with dealers and there seemed to be a decent amount of traffic for Thursday afternoon. The exhibits were certainly interesting. I, too, was disappointed by the lack of supplies available. I was a little disappointed in that I did not get to do much of my favorite thing when looking for coins. Don't get me wrong; there was a lot of great stuff offered by a lot of dealers; a lot of high end stuff, too. I like to look through raw coins in 2x2s but most dealers I saw were stocked to the gills with certified coins. Having only a couple hours, I needed to move quickly and skipped most of the tables that did not clearly have boxes of 2x2 housed raw coins available. I found a couple and spent my time happily looking for Peace Dollar VAMS. Wish I had more time to search, but I had to get back to work and have no time today or tomorrow. I did get to meet Charmy, though!

koynekwest

Welcome! Great post!

StrikeOutXXX

I’m still here, I think this is the case of Large Cents you mentioned?

87redcivic

Yes! That's the one!

golden

Welcome aboard! Thanks for the best first time show report that I have ever seen!

jabba

Very good report I got to visit Philadelphia one did the tour of the liberty bell and got a cheese steak from one of the cart vendor the best greasy yummy things I’ve ever eaten I recommend the horse carriage tour very cool diamond district

RichieURich

Nice report, thanks for posting it!

sparky64

I grade your report A+.
Thank you.

I also like like your term, "price/look ratio".

Don't think I've heard it put quite like that but it's perfect.

thisistheshow

Thank you for the great report. Awesome job!

TheRaven

Have to check out that large cent case tomorrow.

blitzdude

Thanks for posting. Enjoyed your report.

TwoSides2aCoin

Great writing and a pleasant read, too. Thanks for that.

dan_marinelli

Great report! Just a note, the 1846 dime is going to cost you!

jfoot13

and I'm not even going to charge you for including my picture lol the picture of the bourse you took was my booth and you got my back waiting on a customer lol

KellenCoin

Great report, thanks so much!

DDR

Excellent show report, I enjoyed reading it.

Coin Finder

really nice report!! Thanks!

rln_14

Great report, not too long, not too short, also nice to see the purchase of "regular" coins and not ones that are out of the price range of many of us, thanks for posting

SurfinxHI

Awesome report!

ricko

@87redcivic.... Welcome aboard and thank you for an excellent show report. Nice pictures too.... Cheers, RickO

FunwithMPL

Thanks for the report.

Dave99B

Fantastic show report! Also, your 'old school' dime set is beyond cool.

Dave

Verno

Well done, enjoyed the report...care to rate the show for you...like old school a through f....thx rj

Staircoins

Thanks for sharing. Great report - feels like I was there!