87redcivic's PAN 2022 Fall Show Report

87redcivic · October 21, 2022 2:49PM

I was able to take the day off from work to come to the show on Friday. I was really interested in hearing the lecture about the Netherlands siege coinage. That was the one lecture I really wanted to sit in on. My 12 year old son talked me into taking him with me on Friday. He's not super interested in coins, but he wanted to hang out with me for a day (and wanted to miss a slow day at school). We couldn't go Saturday (when all the PAN youth events are running) because he has a soccer game. So off to Monroeville we went.

For those familiar with Monroeville, there are plenty of nice eating options. I asked where he wanted to eat lunch - 100% his choice. He really wanted to go to Taco Bell.
Taco Bell?!?!?!

Me: "There are 3 or 4 mexican places that are much nicer around here"
Son: "But Taco Bell has nacho fries"
Me: "Well I did say that you got to pick"

Taco Bell was fairly empty and the seats were uncomfortable. His lunch consisted of two orders of nacho fries, two cheesy fiesta potatos, and a 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 mix of Cola, Cherry Cola, and Root Beer from the self-serve drink fountain. He called it the "death drink". I had a #9. He was a happy camper after "lunch".

We pulled into the convention center and the lot was packed with cars. Went though the short line and got our name tags. I went over to the educational displays first. My son was like, how much is this worth? How much is that worth? He loved seeing a dealer table packed with gold coins. Of course... "How much are those worth?"

Here is a picture of the bourse.

After that I heard over the intercom that the speaker was going to begin in 10 minutes. I got a first pass of one of the rows, before we settled into the speaking area. The lecture was about 30 minutes long and I really enjoyed it.I knew nothing about Groningen before the show. My son quietly played Minecraft in the seat next to me. He paused the screen a few times when they were talking about different points about how sieges worked and listened. Small victories in education.

After returning to the bourse, I continued going through my want list. I wasn't as careful and methodical as I normally am. My "group" was taking two chairs and I was thinking about that. Halfway through the time I was there, my want list got misplaced. If you are a PAN dealer who found my list today, my apologies for the litter.

This is my haul from today.

I had started stacking silver Washington quarters a few years ago and of course I eventually starting tracking the missing dates and mint marks. So I filled in two holes today for way over melt. The two dimes jumped out at me when going through the boxes. They were coins on my want list and had that VF circ dove gray look that I love for 1800's stuff. The barber half was a buy because I have a few of them and might start a G/VG album in a year.

The Victoria shilling was a small mistake and impulse buy. There are slightly better coins selling for slightly cheaper on Ebay right now. Anyway, I'm a sucker for early Victorian coinage. Every coin I bought today came with a $2-$4 discount from the price on the 2x2. It was a good show, I had fun with my son. He said he had fun too. I hope to do it again in the spring.