St. Louis Coin Show report

RYK

I stole about 90 minutes from my family today, braved deteriorating weather, and visited the St. Louis Coin Show today. It did not seem too busy to me. I sold 5 slabbed gold coins, 4 double eagles and one eagle, and 2 Krugerrands [sic?] for reasonable prices. I was not intending to buy anything, but two modestly toned MS-63 Morgans that had complementary toning (sort of yin-yang and yang-yin--I will post them later) caught my eye. Flush with cash from the gold coin sales, I had to buy them.

I looked primarily at gold coins and really saw not a single one from my want list. Lots of slabbed common date Liberty and SG double eagles, lots of unencapsulated common date quarter eagles and half eagles. An occasional oddball like a Dahlonega $2.50 in a PCI slab. (Is that a red flag or what?) No Carson City gold whatsoever and no uncommon, scarce or rare New Orleans gold, the two areas that I collect.

A heard a few dealers complaining about how little business they were doing. I think the weather (mostly the threat of bad weather) was keeping people away. As it is sleeting/snowing as I write this, I expect the attendance tomorrow to be worse. It looked like a few dealers were packing it in today to escape the bad weather.

I submitted my first three coins ever for slabbing. ANACS was there, and I brought a few "family coins'--gold coins of little numismatic value, but some sentimental value. The representative was very nice, explained the process, and made no effort to sell me on it. He even discouraged me slabbing the AU quarter eagle that my father bought when I was 11 because ("it probably isn't worth it"). I slabbed it anyway.

All in all, I had a nice but short visit to the show.

Since I religiously read these show reports, I felt it is my duty to post my experience, and I hope that others do the same.

RKKay

Hey, Robert. Any good patterns?

RYK

Rick, I did not notice any, but frankly was not looking. I did not have the time.

RKKay

Oh, well. Thanks.

kranky

Bad weather can be a real attendance killer, that might have been the reason it wasn't that busy.

And I always read the show reports also, appreciate yours.

DaveG

Thanks for the report.

I also, always read the show reports. Since I'm not a "big money" collector, I don't get to the national shows or auctions, so reading the show reports really helps me keep up with the coin market.

stujoe

Is this the show out by the airport? I have never been to that one but have wondered whether it was worth going to or not. Thanks for the report.

michael

wow greet report i love these show reports

it tells more about the real coin market than any of the hyped articles you always read


sincerely michael

RYK

Stujoe,

It is directly across the street from the St. Louis airport. The neighborhood is somewhat marginal. I was forced to park in the back of the hotel, which seemed deserted. I literally ran from my car and the hotel and from the hotel to my car.

stujoe

Thanks. I have thought of going to that one a few times but never have. I am on the Illinois side over by Scott AFB so it is a little bit of a drive for me. The Central States show at the dome/convention center in May (2nd-4th) will probably be the next show I go to in StL.

beartracks42

Thanks for the report. I, like many others really enjoy reading them. There seems to be a good many shows in and around St. Louis...it is about 8 hrs. or so from home, so I have never been to one there.

RYK

We had an ice and snow storm over the last eighteen hours. I expect that the traffic at the show was light today.

The Central States show in May will be interesting. It will be held in downtown St. Louis which may be attractive for people coming in from out of town, but not so for locals. The New Silver Dollar Show was held at the same location (convention center) this past fall, and I understand that volume was light. I am very concerned about security for this location. I hope there is no incident there this spring. Given the logistics of parking, security of nearby parking, and walk to parking, when I go, I will bring no money (just checks and plastic) or coins and will walk out with no coins (if I buy any, I will have them shipped!). Frankly, all of my purchases are no with one dealer anyway. I go to a show to sell coins and just to see what is going on.

stujoe

I went to the Silver Dollar show. It was not real busy. Most of the dealers weren't thrilled but I heard a couple say that it was to be somewhat expected for a first show. I bought a few coins there. Of course, the coins I am buying are not of the expensive variety. Most expensive was a VF 1908-S IHC.

It is not the best location but I didn't really feel threatened. I was even brave enough to take the Metrolink in...alone. I would probably drive next time, though. Most people generally want to leave me alone and I didn't take any dark alleys or anything on the way there.

ksteelheader

I have never been to a coin show. The thought of going to the one in Baltimore is getting stronger.
Question. Are there usually people there that sell mint bags of cents? Thanks, Ken

kranky

One way to be sure is call dealers who sell mint bags and ask them if they are going to Baltimore. They could arrange to bring what you wanted to buy.

jadecoin

Hi all. Traffic was relatively light (compared to previous years), and a lot of dealers jumped ship when the storm began to hit. Sunday took me an hour (normally 25 minutes) to get to the show from my office. However, it was by far our best show this year, one of the better shows we have ever had, both in terms of sales, and purchases/consignments. St. Louis is an underrated market for coins, but no doubt about it, the old location at the defunct Henry VIII hotel was a lot better.

Eric Newman dropped by, and as some of you long-time collectors know, he is one of the greatest living numismatists. It is worth coming to a show like this just to meet him.

This was the first of four major shows in St. Louis this year, and we will be present at all of them. Last year's Silver Dollar show was only a modest success in our opinion, but it will hopefully grow into what the old Silver Dollar show was back in the 80's. Central States is just down the road - hope to see you there.

Sincerely,
jadecoin

coppercoins

My own personal report regarding the St. Louis show goes something like this:

The trip up there was okay, no major incidents. When I got to the show it was packed. Barely room to move your elbows, and the tables were packed in tightly. There were probably 60-70 dealers (a guess) and likely 300-400 attendees there when I got there around 11AM Saturday.

Past shows had done me well there, I had found a few decent coins, but not much. I have competition in that area, another two to three collectors who do the same thing I do. Well, this time they all made it through before I had a chance. I found one measly coin for $3 and that's all I spent for the whole show. I imagine others might have had better luck with what they collect and what they were looking for, but for me it completely sucked.

I was there to cherry die varieties in Lincolns, Indians, and two-centers....nothing but one single 1941S doubled die reverse Lincoln. Woo-hoo. And I had to drive through a snow storm going home, to boot. A really crappy show experience for me.

NumisEd

I liked the show. I did notice a marked absence of real coins (bust/seated), and an over abundance of modern junk. I guess that it only makes sense. Truely rare coins from the early 1800's are being sucked into collections at a rate faster than they are being returned to the market. On the other hand, modern coins are being "manufactured" by the billions...........literally. Somewhere in the middle of bust coins and modern bullion items was a sea of Morgan Dollars and W/L Halves. That in itself is not bad, but they appeared to be of low quality (cleaned, dipped, or just plain too white). Mostly common date stuff. Sad.

RYK

I agree, NumisEd. There seems to be a lot of junk out there. It reminds me of what happenned to baseball cards when they became very popular in the mid-late 1980's. New sets were coming out with frightening speed, while the older, truly rare and popular cards quietly disappeared.

One shining light in the St. Louis show, if it interests you, is Tom Reynolds. He always comes to St. Louis with an excellent selection of early copper material. When I collected early coppers, I would literally drool over his cases. Even though I do not collect it, I always stop by to look and say hello.

kranky

I agree, I always stop at Tom Reynolds' table to look. I think it's cool the way he has the coins laid out on the paper envelopes.

dorkkarl

reynolds is 1 of the true class-acts, & has forgot more than i'll ever learn. completely in opposition to run-of-the-mill dealers - UNCERTIFIED coins only. how many guys can you walk a copper up to & get an actual grade? a lot of others hem & haw (ie if it's not in plastic, they can't grade it), but reynolds gives it to ya straight.

don't think you could find more consistent grading (he grades by eac standards), & i've bought several times from him. i've been to quite a few st. luois shows over the years (3+ hour drive), but couldn't make that 1. i'm planning to hit central states though.

K S

NumisEd

I also liked Tom Reynold's coins. Other noteworthy dealers at the show were Northeast Numismatics and Jade Coin. They both had top of the line coins. Jade coin did not have their name listed on their table, but I came across them by just walking the floor. They had a lot of bust halves "in the raw", just like Reynolds......just laying on a piece of velvet fabric. Nice display. I bought 2 coins from them...bust half and a large cent. They had nice colonials too, but I was not buying colonials.

Northeast had some big dollar coins. Wow, what a chance to actually hold some really rare coins. The guy from Northeast (can't remember his name) sure was nice, too. These guys made the show. Oh yeah, I almost forgot Johathan Kern. He also has some really nice material, although I don't collect ancients.

RYK

It will be interesting to see how the collector turnout is for Central States. It is a more established show than New Silver Dollar but at the same (problematic) location. I guess the location is more an issue for loacls than for out of town guests. I hope to you all there. When the time gets close, I will post a note about meeting up.

Robert