Long Beach Report (no bourse pics)

lermish

Flew down to Long Beach with the wife to get away from the kids for a little bit and check out the Long Beach coin show. I didn't take any pictures as there was a sign requesting not to take pictures so I chose to respect that.

According to everyone there it was absolutely slammed yesterday with a bunch of sales but today on the second day, even right after opening, it seemed pretty subdued. I didn't pay attention to too many bullion sales as I was on a mission for some small gold pieces and chop marked trade dollars. I walked around for a few hours and didn't really see that many transactions taking place. Prices on the areas that I don't pay too much attention to seemed really strong, especially all of the seated liberty series. It was a nice mix of dealers but overall not that much different from my local shows in terms of selection and quality.

The standing Liberty quarter display was neat and the quality was astounding. Did some lot viewing at Legends and great collections and that was fun. Got to hold and examine a Panama Pacific octagon which was absolutely glorious and my wife was even mildly interested in one of the Humbert $50 pieces. Those suckers are heavy!

I specifically was looking for a type 2 and a type 3 gold dollar to finish my gold type set and was able to make a purchase.

My mission to add to my chopped trade dollar set was unsuccessful. I saw roughly half a dozen at the entire show and the only non-common/duplicate one was as polished and shiny as an ASE.

I almost laid my hands on a very nice Classic Head $5 but after looking at it I did one last loop of the floor to double check and came back to buy and the one person in front of me in line decided that that was the one coin he wanted and ended up purchasing it. Too bad, it looked great for a 45. So, shockingly, I'm leaving with unspent money. Yay for no impulse purchases I guess?

I submitted a recently purchased raw 1855 $3 for grading. The PCGS people were very pleasant and quick despite everyone including myself whining a bit about service times.

Overall, glad I went, it was neat to see, but I'm not sure if it's necessarily worth a trip in the future.

PS-My dad asked me to talk to the stamp guy for a couple of stamps and the quoted prices were 5x his max so I'm not sure if that market is crazy, the dealer is in a fantasy world, or my dad is a cheapskate.

P0CKETCHANGE

Thanks for the show report. I went back in February and found myself a nice $20 Liberty for my type set. Glad to see you were able to find the gold you were looking for as well.

I love the gold dollars, so I took a peek at the TrueView for the Type 2. I hope you don’t mind me posting it, but I am very interested to understand exactly how some of the features on the obverse arose—specifically the raised outline of almost the entire bust and the perturbations behind the letters. Anyone have insight on this?

Rondor

I live in L.A. and auctions have taken all available funds.

lermish

@P0CKETCHANGE said:
I am very interested to understand exactly how some of the features on the obverse arose—specifically the raised outline of almost the entire bust and the perturbations behind the letters. Anyone have insight on this?

I'll be happy to defer to any experts who want to weigh in but I believe it's a massive die crack.

ricko

@lermish... Thanks for the show report and commentary. Long Beach is usually a good show.
Cheers, RickO

golden

Thanks for your show report.

kaz

thanks for your show report! I'm not sure what is going on with the double outline and other things on the type 2, but wonder if it could be from an extremely worn die?