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Charmy's BIG HUGE 2024 ANA CHICAGO WORLD'S FAIR OF MONEY SHOW Report w/Tons of Pics!

ThePennyLadyThePennyLady Posts: 4,468 ✭✭✭✭✭
edited August 15, 2024 11:36AM in U.S. Coin Forum

Let me start off by saying that this show was one BIG HUGE show - I mean physically, the bourse floor seemed much larger with 19 wide spacious rows from end to end. At one point, I needed a new lightbulb for my lamp and since I was alone at my table, I didn't want to make the 15-20 minute trek from my table all the way to the far back corner of the room to get one, so I actually paid a page a few dollars to retrieve one for me!

In any event, for me this show was a big success, super busy, lots of sales, some great new purchases, entertaining dinners with good friends, fun after-dinner meet-ups at the Hyatt bar, club meetings, and ending with a wonderful end-of-show ANA awards banquet!


My trip started out smoothly and uneventful on Sunday. I arrived at the airport early as usual, and grabbed a glass of wine since the Vino wine bar was directly across from my gate and I could watch from there when it was time to line up!

The view of the Newport Coast as we take off over the ocean never gets old!




I settled in for the 4 hour direct flight to Chicago but then about 3 hours in, they announced we were turning back and taking a detour to the Denver airport due to a wing-flap issue. Since we were only about an hour away from Chicago, I don't know whey they chose to go backwards to Denver, but what do I know! Anyway, we were directed to a vacant runway to land that was lined with about a dozen fire engines!

We had to stay seated until they decided whether the wing flap issue was still an issue, but I guess it was since they made us deplane and wait inside at the gate until they figured out whether the problem could be easily fixed. Well, they ended up deactivating the plane and began looking for another airplane to put all of us on. At that point, I decided to book my own flight to Chicago for the next morning just in case they couldn't find a plane and had to re-book everyone on different planes.

They finally announced we would be spending the night in Denver and rebooked everyone on a new plane the next morning at 8am. (I kept my own flight just in case.) So they gave us vouchers for one of two hotels, free Lyft rides to/from the hotel, and $60 in food bouchers. One of the hotels we got to choose from was the beautiful Gaylord resort, so of course I grabbed a room there and took the Lyft to the hotel with another lady who was on the plane with me. By the way, the airline (United) made it very easy to take advantage of the hotel/ride/food vouchers through their app, without having to use any of our own money. I was happy that at least we would be staying in a nice hotel - until I got to the Gaylord and saw there was about 100 people waiting in line to register! Apparently, there were some other flights that were cancelled due to weather and other issues and they too chose the Gaylord!



Luckily, the lady from my flight who rode with to the hotel realized there was no one in the Elite Bonvoy registration line (Gaylord is part of Marriott Bonvoy program of which I am a member) so we strode right up to that hotel rep and easily/quickly checked in! The hotel also gave us a little package of "emergency" personal grooming items for which I was very grateful. It was 10pm by then and I was too tired to even think about using the food vouchers so I went straight to bed. As soon as I laid my head on the pillow, I got a new text update from United stating that our flight was moved to noon on Monday! Ugh!! That would put me in Chicago around 3pm, basically missing most of Dealer Day for which I paid $300 to participate in. So I got on the phone and was able to find a seat on a 7am flight (I also cancelled the flight I had booked myself previously).

I'm just about falling asleep when around midnight, this very loud siren went off in my room, along with a recording telling us to evacuate the hotel immediately! Another big Ugh!!! Since I had no pjs, I had to get completely dressed, made sure to grab my coin bags (which was all I had with me) and made my way to the parking lot to wait further instructions. That's when I decided, the heck with it, I'm not going to be able to go back to sleep only to have wake up in a few hours, so since I was already dressed and had everything with me and it was almost 1am and I had to get up at 5am, I sent for the Lyft right then and there and headed back to the airport to wait for my flight! I have never seen a large airport so deserted!

The one positive thing about this whole experience was that the plane I was booked on to Chicago was a very large and luxurious 777 and since I had a first class seat, I felt like I was sitting in my living room on my recliner chair! I actually wished the flight was longer!!



Finally, welcome to Chicago!

My biggest worry throughout this ordeal was whether my checked bag with all my clothes and show supplies would actually transfer to the right plane and make it to Chicago - so when we landed I quickly opened my Apple Airtag app which showed my bag was definitely in Chicago - yay! Even better, it had arrived on an earlier flight and was waiting for me (along with a ton of other bags) in the baggage claim area so I just had to go pick it up and didn't need to wait for it to come down the baggage chute!

I decided to head straight to the show so I could take advantage of Dealer Day as much as possible. I set up my booth, locked my coins in my cases, and began the hunt for coins for my customers and for new inventory. These are the Pretty Pennies I found that day and throughout the show...including a beautiful 1955/55 DDO PCGS MS63 RB (looks MS64), one of the prettiest 1909-S VDB's I've seen in PCGS MS65+ BN, a gorgeous PCGS MS66 1859 J-228 With Shield pattern, and a popular 1872 PCGS MS64 RB (mostly Red) Shallow N Reverse!





After several hours at the show, I was exhausted and needed to go check into my hotel (which I had been in contact with and was holding my room for me) so I could take a much needed nap before meeting up with friends for dinner at McCormick & Schmidts.


One of my foreign dealer friends who drove to the show graciously brought a couple bottles of wine to share with us

Since there were six of us, we ended up buying another bottle of wine from the menu - it too was delicious!

All of the food was very delicious, especially the steak!




After dinner, I went back to my room and passed out!

I arrived back at the show early Tuesday morning so I could finish setting out my coins. I was very pleasantly surprised to see someone had left a bottle of Freakshow wine for me on my table. I found out it was, Chris Seuntjens of Christal Clear Showcases, who said he thought the name of the wine was "appropriate" for a coin show - which I thought was hilarious!

After I finished setting out my coins, I decided to get a jump on taking photos around the bourse, including some amazing coin displays.

Andy at GreatCollections and some of the coins and a very cool gold bar on display






DLRC

Bob and Carol Campbell

Rick Snow's son Kenny and Ron Mirr's sister Karen

Gwen and her helper at the Roundtable Trading table

Witter Coin

My table neighbors and good friends David and Deanne Floyd of DJ's Coins

The US Mint

Some of the various foreign Mints



Amazing numismatic displays from the ANA Museum













The famous 1943 Copper Cent and 1944 Steel Cent



I've seen the amazing Tyrant Collection several times, but it never gets old viewing these beautiful coins!










The NGC folks hard at work


The PCGS folks working equally hard!



Heritage had on display some unique and amazing pieces of antique jewelry from an upcoming auction





There was quite a crowd of collectors waiting to get into the show (these are ANA photos)

Soon the bourse floor was buzzing with chatter and collectors on the hunt for coins and other numismatic items! One of my favorite and nicest customers, George, and his daughter Denise stopped by to say hi and picked up a few coins I had found for him.

The bourse floor was very busy well into the afternoon and I didn't even leave my table for most of the day. By about 4pm things began to slow down and I was able to open one of the bottles of wine I had brought - one of my favorites, Rombauer Zinfandel.

At 5pm, Whitman/Greysheet/PNG held a dealer cocktail reception out in the lobby of the show. It was a great way to start off the week!






I then met my friends for dinner at Capitol Grill (which is right next door to McCormick & Schmidts). They were having a "The Generous Pour" wine tasting special in which we all participated.









Once again the food was amazing, as was the dessert!


After dinner, I stopped by the Hyatt bar on my way to my room and of course got waylaid after seeing several dealer friends who asked me to join them for a "nightcap"!

Wednesday morning I was back at the show around 9am as I wanted to do a little more "shopping" before things got busy again - which it did! Several more friends stopped by to say hi - this is Kandace Beller

I always look forward to seeing my new friend Alan Flint who lives in Chicago and is the brother of a long-time friend (Bruce Flint) with whom I worked for 17 years back at my Morrison & Foerster ("Mofo") days

This enthusiastic adorable young lady Amanda Hay came by to say hi

Chris Seuntjens (who brought me the Freakshow wine) also stopped by

My friend Al Weinberg stopped by to bring me a couple new scarce penny pocket mirrors and a rare celluloid encased Indian cent with a barrel design that I hadn't seen before for my personal collection.




My friend Justin Waddell showed me this awesome scarce 1863 J-300 Indian cent pattern with a reeded edge.



That night I went to dinner at a new Italian restaurant - the company (Rick, Ron, Neil, Kenny and Karen), food and wine were great but the restaurant was way too noisy to be able to carry on a conversation.



Once again I stopped by the Hyatt bar and ran into more coin friends, including my good friend David Hunt from Alhambra Coin (not pictured) and the adorable Grey Sheet ladies, Billie and Amanda!


Thursday morning I ran into Ben and George on my way in.

The morning was busy as usual. I was offered some great coins that I couldn't pass up, including that beautiful 1909-S vdb in PCGS MS65+ BN and a beautifully toned 1933 in PCGS MS66 RB


That afternoon, the adorable CAC mascot made his appearance at the show - actually, he was the son of John Brush underneath all that colorful foam!


That afternoon, the ANA also held it's Member Awards reception, to which I was invited since I earned my 25-year member pin/medal - I was actually surprised that it has been 25 years since I joined the ANA, it went by really fast!






Thursday night we went to Gibsons - when you walk in the door, you'd think it was one big numismatic dinner meeting as I'd say there were numismatic folks at every other table!





Once again, we had some excellent wine and excellent food and dessert!






And why break a good habit now - I enjoyed another fun after dinner evening at the Hyatt bar chatting with my friend David Hunt/Alhambra Coin and we were treated to a dazzling display of fireworks right out the window!



Friday morning I had two meetings both scheduled for 9am. I was doing a show-and-tell at the Fly-In Club meeting with my new penny pocket mirrors, encased celluloid Indian cent, as well as my latest very cool error pick-ups from the recent Stacks auction (these and their close ups were previously posted in my last Long Beach show report).













I also planned to attend the ANA open board meeting since I'm on the ANA By-Laws committee and an item our committee was involved with about term limits was being discussed during this board meeting and I was advised some of the board members may want to ask our committee members for clarification on some of our recommendations. However, after I got to the meeting I could see that our specific agenda item was way down the list and I needed to be back on the bourse floor to open my table by 10am so I couldn't stay that long. Fortunately, our committee chair was their to offer any necessary input, which he did.


As expected, Friday was the slowest day of the show so I was able to catch up on some paperwork, process some of my new purchases, work on my website, etc. It was a pleasure seeing my dear friend Cindy Wibker who stopped by to say hi to me and to my next door table neighbor James Sego.


Soon it was time to head over to the big ANA Awards Banquet which was being held across the street at the Hilton. I grabbed a glass of wine at the bar (since they typically have a better variety to pick from than at the banquet).

Rick (who was receiving the Dealer of the Year award) and his son Kenny joined me before heading into the banquet.

I ran into these famous folks on my way into the banquet!

I really enjoy attending the ANA banquet each year and to see and hear about those who receive the major ANA awards. There are so many people who work hard to make a difference through their commitment, time, hard work and financial contributions to the ANA and to numismatics in general and I'm grateful that the ANA recognizes some of these folks each year. Here are photos I took around and during the banquet.













Me with Ira Goldberg and his friend

With Xan Chamberlain - he was the one who got me started collecting major Indian cent errors!

That's Ira Goldberg in the middle






Then a bunch of us headed back to the Hyatt for one last "hurrah" before everyone headed home on Saturday!

On Saturday there was still a nice crowd waiting to enter the show, though nothing like the first couple days.

It ended up being a relatively slow day for me, so I took some time to view the collector exhibits. As usual, there were some truly amazing exhibits. I think my favorite was the "Get Your Kicks on Route 66" exhibit.


























Soon it was time to pack up and head to the airport. Bye Chicago for now....Gratefully, I had no issues whatsoever on my trip back home!

As usual, my hubby and cutey Penny were there to greet me!

What a fun and successful show it was! Next up is the Long Beach show on 9/5-9/7/24 immediately followed by the new Great American Coin Show show in Tampa.

Charmy Harker
The Penny Lady®
https://thepennylady.com/

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