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Hi All/2019 ANA

nicholasz219nicholasz219 Posts: 1,386 ✭✭✭
in World & Ancient Coins Forum

Hi Everyone!

I was able to make it to the 2019 ANA on Friday. I was able to see Andy but he always had a customer so I kept circling back between tables only to find him with another customer. I didn't ever have a chance to talk to him but I did realize it had been forever since I had talked to anyone on here. The same thing went for Josh. I even looked through his inventory with his partner but Josh was knee deep in conversation over a pile of coins while I was there.

I had to work in the afternoon so I made it a point to try and be there within the half hour of the show opening. I had a few people in mind that I wanted to see (Andy and Josh included: fail) and a few booths for sure that I wanted to explore. I started by finding the ancient section of the show which was a very pleasant surprise considering that there was no CICF or Chicago Coin Expo this year (or if it was, I was not aware and missed it entirely). The fact that there were MANY tables of ancient dealers at the ANA was a true happy surprise. Having been to ANA shows since the 91 show, I have always expected to be lucky if I found two good foreign/ancient dealers that had coins I liked in the range I could afford.

I don't know why I didn't take half a week off of work. I was so excited to go to the show and then briefly despondent when I realized I could barely scratch the surface of the ancients dealers much less the whole show. I had to sacrifice exhibits, the mints, paper money and Russian stuff all of which I would happily sit and look through for hours if given the time. Seeing the depth of the ancient selection really gave me a second wind and brought me back to my plan. Having the plan was key because if I hadn't already looked over the dealer list and decided on who I was seeing ahead of time I would have been found wandering through the parking lot.

I stopped at CIVITAS and saw some great coins, but mostly duplicates to my collection. I was shown a beautiful mint state slabbed Julia Domna denarius. If it didn't sell, hopefully Josh can show it here. I couldn't afford it even with a magical budget stretch so I had to just admire it.

Then I stopped by Mark Reid of Time Machine and caught up for awhile. Mark is a great conversationalist which makes his table fun to be at while looking through his substantial ancients and artifacts. I was able to pick up a nice Probus tetradrachm and Septimius Severus issue from Nikaea.

Then I wandered over to Tamco Numismatics and dug through the glorious piles of coins he had grouped neatly. Georges was happy to honor the price tags written in Euro at basically a 1-1 conversion rate and the prices were good. Piles of Parthian, Sasanian, LRB and nicely diverse books of individual coins at very reasonable prices. I picked up three antoninianii of Probus to fill mintmark and type holes in my collection, a Parthian drachm of Orodes I and a Sasanian drachm of Kavad I.

Finally at Musa Numismatic Art, I sat with Glen Lindwall and talked coins while I searched through several deal bags. I found 10 provincial Septimius Severus coins I did not have in a bag of about 40 coins which was fantastic. After I picked out three that I did not have out of probably the first five coins I looked at, I panicked a bit thinking I might have to buy all 40 coins.

Then I realized that it was Friday and I had to leave for my two hour sit in traffic. I can say that my two favorite things to do at shows are to visit with folks and to sort through piles of coins. I don't mind paying a fair price for each coin. But it is the thrill of the hunt in its most raw and probably safest form even if you pay a higher price per coin than you would online but without the attendant risk of buying a pile of junk.

Nick

My Collection

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