Cherries picked at the show this past weekend.

coppercoins

I just thought you folks might like to read about some of the beauties I picked at the show this past weekend here in Springfield, Missouri. It was probably the most productive weekend of my entire cherrypicking life, so here are the top few (sorry, on some the pics are still forthcoming)...

1. 1909P-1DO-001 in VF30 (1909P VDB cent DDO#1, CPG listed)
2. 1911D-1OM-001 in VF20 (1911 D/S recently discovered, fewer than half a dozen pieces known)
Photo from "The Hub" magazine describing the discovery
Photo of my coin in the same alignment.
3. 1925S-1DO-001 in VF 20 (1925S DDO#1, CPG listed)

These and about two dozen relatively nice varieties such as a nice 1930P cent DDR in MS63RD, a nice 1936P cent DDR in ChBu, and other assorted listed die varieties.

I also picked up the following:

Cent Rolls (all BU) - 1944 (x2), 1944S, 1945S, 1951D, 1951S, 1952D, 1953S (x2), 1955D, 1957D (x2), 1958D (x3), 1959D (x2), 1960LD (x3), 1960D (x5), 1961 (x4), 1961D (x4), 1962 (x2), 1962D (x7), 1963 (x6), 1964 (x20), 1964D (x18), 1965 (x7), 1966 (x2), 1967, 1968D (X6), 1968S (x10), 1969D (x6), 1969S (x5), 1970 (x4), 1970D (x4), 1970S (x2), 1971 (x6), 1971D (x2), 1972D (x6), 1973 (x5), 1973D (x7), 1973S (x4), 1974 (x15), 1974D (x22), 1974S (x14), 1975 (X27), 1975D (x24), 1976D (X21), 1977D (x15), 1978D (x10), 1979D (x12), 1980 (x4), 1980D (x2), 1981 (x3), 1982D LDC (x4), 1983D, 1984D, 1989D (x2).

I also bought a mint sealed bag of 1960D cents.

I guess that's about all, but isn't that enough? LOL!

I needed to add that a couple of variety hunter frineds came to town for the show and to visit with me, and we had a really good time sitting in my office chatting one on one about coins...really fun to do that. Anyhow, each of them brought their nicest doubled die for me to take photos of for my web site...here are the links:

1955P-1DO-001 (the monster king of doubled dies)
The ever elusive 1995D-1DO-003. This is the plate coin used in Wexler's 1996 book.

kranky

You're having great success in cherrypicking - what's your technique? Do you put a loupe to every coin in every dealer's case? I would think it would take a very long time to look at each coin that closely.

GaCoinGuy

Hey, would you be interested in selling 1 or 2 each of the 69D and 69S cents? No idea what these go for, though.....

coppercoins

That is pretty much how I do it. I show up at the bourse floor at opening time, and I don't quit until they get ready to shut down at 5PM. I walk the floor first, spend about 15 minutes looking to secure roll deals, bags, or whatever bulk I plan to take home with me. Then I go back to the first aisle and methodically search every EF or above Indian cent and Lincoln cent that I see, moving from table to table slowly working myself around the entire floor through the day. It does take monumental patience. I can spend an hour at one table, and only spend $5....or I can spend 10 minutes at a table and spend $300. Just depends on what I see and how much it is, and I have no idea what that will be before I go. A lot of people go to a show looking for a coin to fill a hole...looking for a CC Morgan that matches the rest of their Morgans. I just look for die varieties, doesn't matter what the date is, so I start at the beginning and go through all of them. I had no idea that I would be buying a VF 1911D cent Saturday morning when I got up...so I had to make sure I carried the funds to accomodate such purchasing.

Lately I have been paying a lot more attention to the earlier Lincolns, and it has been paying off. Within a two week time frame I have found two CPG listed 1909 cents, a new discovery 1911D/S cent, and a CPG listed 1925S DDO. Last year at this time I would have skipped the 1909S cents because I considered them too expensive for my wallet. Fortunately funds have increased and things have improved. I can basically have whatever I want now within certain bounds. I used to have to be extremely careful about what I spent.

As for the rolls I took home, I have already found a number of goodies in the earlier rolls. I paid $165 for one group and have already pulled over $500 in die varieties out of it....and that's using conservative grading and pricing. That's pretty typical for the stuff I'm doing. I usually quintuple the average of funds spent, and I spent close to $500 which means I should end up with close to $2,500 retail in die varieties. Since this is the last show I will be doing this year, I got enough to take me the whole winter to go through.

coppercoins

No problem...they run somewhere around $1.00-$1.50 a roll. I can get you more exact pricing and shipping if you pass me an e-mail.

kranky

Great examples of using your knowledge in an area where you know more than the sellers. And a lot of patience, too! But it must be a chore to haul around over 300 rolls PLUS a mint bag all day. Oof!

Do you find better luck at smaller or larger shows?

coppercoins

Actually I have been doing this for a number of years, and all of the sellers in this region know me. When I come by their tables and tell them to hold something for me, they do. They know I will be back by before the end of the day to pay for it....so all I haul around is the singles I buy, and I do that in a notebook with Cowens pages that fits into my soft-side satchel I carry. I come back at the end of the day for the rolls and bags, and usually take that in one trip with a cart.

As a side note, it helps at times to have a relationship with the dealers, get their cards, call them once a month or so and remind them you're still alive and that you want them to find your bulk for you...they usually produce and are happy to carry to a show if they know it's already sold. This goes for anyone out there who wants to pick up bulk material that's not precious metal....cents and nickels, generally. The dealers don't want to carry that stuff to a show thinking there might be some chance of selling it, but they don't mind making the room if you've been in contact with them prior to the event.

As for the size of shows I like - usually the ones with between 15 and 50 dealers, no smaller, no larger. I can't handle looking through any more in a weekend and find myself wandering around trying to cope with finding the best tables rather than trying to hit them all...and I always walk away with the sense that I have skipped some of the better ones. I prefer for the shows to be of a size that I can hit all the interesting tables while I'm there.

GaCoinGuy

Email sent.........that 55DDO is outrageous

coppercoins

Just to let you know (as a group), the rolls I listed above are just this weekend's accumulation, and I've been doing this for years. I have close to 4,000 rolls. If anyone needs any dates, let me know. I usually sell them for close to CDN ask.