What's the word on Baltimore? I hear it's........
Bustman
Posts: 1,911 ✭
I'm hearing its beat. Not much activity, not many "good" coins. I would like to hear from anyone who was there today, as I am trying to decide if its worth the 3 hr trip in the morning.
0
Comments
lunch with all of us is worth the trip!!
Registry 1909-1958 Proof Lincolns
The show itself seemed moderately attended. This was amazing enough, considering the state of the economy, as Mark pointed out to me.
I'd say the quality of the material was about average for this regional show. Nice type material was available, but I didn't ask prices. Patterns were in very scarce supply. There were only a few really nicely toned Franklins. In contrast, there were quite a few lovely toned dollars. Two dealers seeemd to have all of the rainbow toned pieces. One of these dealers had a rainbow toned PCGS DMPL66 that was to die for. It easily would have been numero uno in my collection, or in fact anyone's collection except perhaps GSAGuy and Art R's. But, at $6000, it was beyond my budget but not neceassarily overpriced. This dealer also had an MS67 beautifully toned piece for $3500 that I thought was overpriced. After some searching, I purchased what I thought was his second best rainbow toned dollar at much more reasonable terms. Afterwards, he told me that GSAguy has a twin to this coin (or maybe he said he sold GSAguy a twin coin), so at that point I knew I had made the right decision. Curiously, there was a pedigree name on the slab that I didn't recognize, and when I asked him whether he knew who that was, he said "That's me!"
The second dealer having an abundant stock of toned dollars also had several of those incredible Jefferson proof nickels with impossible toning. I don't collect this series, but let me tell you, I was very tempted. In the end I decided not to, in part because I really wasn't convinced that mother nature could have toned all of these pieces in such a way. Anyway, this dealer had in stock the auction catalogue plate toned dollar from the Superior sale. (The coin I purchased above, as well as the midnightblue-purple one I won at the Heritage sale in Long Beach, blow this plate coin away.) I passed on his offer, and instead purchased the cleanest rainbow piece he had for less than half the cost of the plate coin. I also was able to pay partly with a coin I had acquired from him last year and later decided I didn't like. So, this helped stop the cash flow damage from my 2 purchases.
Finally, I went to see the auction lots. Only those for Friday night and Saturday were still available for viewing. The dollars were generally terrible. I did see Recardoundo's toned dollar, and it was indeed a lovely coin, much nicer than the scan, but not a monster. I decided not to bid on it. I also found toned dollars leftover from recent auction sales. One piece that I originally liked was observed to have PVC damage on closer inspection on the bottom of the reverse.
There were some very nice trade dollars. I especially liked the Eliasberg proof. Some had very nice color. But, for sure, the quality of most of these pieces was far short of the Pr67 and PR68 grades assigned by NGC.
Traffic was terrible-- it took me 2.5 hours to drive the 60 miles to home. But, when I got there, I realized it was well worth the effort.
<< <i>Bustman, lunch with all of us is worth the trip!!
It's worth the trip just to see how tawl I actually am!
<< <i>I had lunch today at a good place. I don't recall the name, but if you walk out of the Convention Center and walk towards the center of it, you''ll see two restaurant/bars across the street, right next to each other. It's the one on the left. Excellent crabcakes and more beer varieties than you'll drink in a lifetime. >>
Sound like the place that we encountered the singing Santa Clauses at.