Does anyone have any news from the EAC convention that just ending today in Ohio??
Coin Finder
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I could not make it.
Thanks
Tbig
Thanks
Tbig
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We had our eye on about 40 items in the auction - and ended up with just seven. Needless to say, it was a stupendously strong auction by all accounts, and we weren't able to touch any rare varieties. Denis Loring called a great sale, and most copper guys stuck it out until the end. There were only a few passes overall.
We met a couple of forum members (thank you!) and picked up a couple of nice consignments, but overall, opportunities to buy seemed scarce, due to the strength of the market. We also talked to several guys who do a little biz on ebay.
San Diego will be the sight of the next convention. Then only other significant new that I came away with from the general meeting was a announcement that EAC would sponsor a Young Numismatist this year. I think that's tremendous news.
Special thanks to "conder101" who was kind enought to give a little discount on his fine book, and he signed it too. We recommend the book to everyone with an interest in slabs!
Sincerely,
jadecoin
Arrived that afternoon and checked into the hotel. At 5:30 I went to the Hospitality Reception. (By tradition on Thursday the local area EACers host a buffet reception for all of the visiting collectors.) It was well attended and I saw many members I have known and met at other EAC conventions. There was lots of friendly discussions and meeting of new friends. The food was quite good. Along with the appetizers we had Swedish meatballs, egg rolls, breaded chicken breast, roast turkey, and roast beef. There were a couple other items as well but I don't remember what they were. (No shrimp this year.)
At 7:30 the half cent, large cent and colonial happenings began. (For those who don't know, at a "happening" a pre-selected group of dates and varieties are announced in the club newsletter and all of the members are encouraged to bring their examples. Then all of the examples of each variety are displayed together. The dates and varieties are deliberately selected so that there are both rare and common varieties exhibited each year so that most everyone has a chance to participate. It is nice to do because it allows for the examination of coins to study die state progressions, and can bring, at times, large percentages of all of the known examples of some of the rare varieties together all in one place. One year we had almost 40 starred reverse 1794 cents displayed and I don't remember what the coin was but we had 12 of the 11 known specimens all in one place at one time!)
One of the most popular exhibits at the large cent happening was the catagory of "Best large cent error". There were about 20 items shown including double strikes, off-centers, a silver dollar sized 1854 die cap, and at least half a dozen partial and full brockage coins. One was a problem free 1793 full obverse brockage wreath cent in VF, and another was a choice glossy brown Mint State full obv brockage 1803 draped bust cent.
At the half cent happening they had an exhibit of blundered edge lettering pieces with about 15 examples shown. They also had a digital camera and computer set up and a half cent sized Logan edge mirror so the coins could be placed in the mirror and projected on the wall so that the coin and the full edge could be seen at the same time by many people. At another table they had the original, first restrike, and second restrike proof half cents. Three of each. One table NINE proof 1843 half cents.
Unfortunately I didn't get to the Colonial happening so I don't know what they had there.
Friday April 25th
The bourse floor opened at 9:30 and it was well filled. Numismatic literature was well represented by Charles Davis. I didn't feel there was as much choice material as in the past but there were a lot of good collector type material including many of the rare varieties. (At least in the draped bust series which is my field.) I can't comment to much on the other series since I really didn't look for them. Unfortunately all but two dealers that carry conder tokens were in Chicago or at home. I checked the stock of one of them on Friday but came up empty. I did pick some needed supplies and a copy of the Breen cent book from one of the other dealers.
At 8:00 PM the "educational forum" began. The topic was "Am evening with John Adams." John formed one of the finest collectionsof all of the varieties of the 1794 cent back in the 1960's and 70's. He spent the hour telling us of how he became interested in the collecting large cents, the people he met and who mentored him, the building of the collection through its final disposition. There werea few side stories along the way including his small role in the discovery that cents were missing from the ANS collection.
After John's presentation we recieved a brief synopsis of the status of each of the early copper censuses. (Early Date Report, The List for middle dates, Common Cents for the late dates, 1/200 Report for the half cents, and a brief reporting of what's new in the colonial field.
Saturday April 26th
I spent the entire day Saturday attending the educational forums.
The Rules of Exhibiting: Two certified ANA judges presented a program on how competitive exhibits are judged, and the rules that the judges must follow. Then the discussion continued on how to create an exhibit that would scare well within these rules. At the end of the class everyone was given a set of judging sheets and encouraged to use them to judge the exhibits on the bourse floor and then to come back to the 3 o'clock follow up class whewre we would discuss the exhibits and the scores they received. (All of the exhibits on the floor were non competetive. This was not to give awards but simply for our learning benefit.
What Every Spouse should know about their Spouses Coin Collection. An interesting class that discussed the legal and tax ramifications of how to handle a collection in an estate, plus metods of disposal, how to get a the best appraisal and return on a copper collection. Also included was basic information on the care and handling of the coins and a primer on grading. (Not inteded to make you a grader but more for protection from someone grossly lowballing you on the grade.)
Digital Coin Photography: A beginning class covering equipment, techniques, lighting and backgrounds. Some iformation on image manipulation was covered, more for presentation than image correction.
Numis Study: An overview and how to use the Numis Study disks and software written by Jon Lusk. (The Numis Study material is a set of disks that contain the 40,000 images from the Bill Noyes condition census and die state surveys for large cents and half cents.) The software allows for image overlays and ratios comparisons between images including images that the user supplies. This makes the program a powerful tool for the study of dies states, potential new Condition Census coins, tracing of pedigree to identify coins that have been seen in the past but now are unknown or possibly being passed off as a CC piece that it isn't. The ratio comparison feature is great tool for variety identification.
At 3 PM we had the second session of the Rules of Exhibiting class.
Talbot, Allen, & Lee tokens and half cent overstruck on TAL tokens: A brief history of the TAL company and the two major varieties of tokens they issued. After TAL closed down they sold over 40,000 tokens to the US mint. these tokens were cut down and used as half cent planchets. A slide presentiaion of 1795 and 1797 half cents struck over cut down TAL's was shown and the half cents themselves were available for viewing. From examination of the coins, the tokens, and the udertypes visible on the half cents we determined that the tokens were NOT rolled down to half cent thickness before the the planchets were cut from them.
At 5 PM I attended the annual C-4 meeting (and applied for membership). One of the major topics of discussion was the up comming book by John Griffee on the varieties of the St Patricks Farthings. John Griffee's reference collection will also be up for sale in this years C-4 convention sale. Some 143 varieties. This is by far the largest group of St Patricks farthings ever sold at auction. The Garrett collection had only 37 varieties.
The Annual EAC sale began at 7:10 PM with Denis Loring calling the sale as usual. (Denis started a little slow but soon got got up to speed. He took a two minute break every hundred lots and a 15 minute break after lot 407. I left after 617 lots and 3 hr and 25 minutes of bidding. A very respectable 180 lots an hr.) Unfortunately this will be Denis's last sale as EAC auctioneer. Next year the sale will probably be broken into a two day sale with the first session following the Friday educational forum and the balance on Saturday night.
Prices struck me as firm but not not unrealisticly high. Many of the lower grade early date coins came from the collection of a friend of mine and I was hoping to get something out of his from the sale. There were only three pieces that he had that I don't have in my set. His 1801 NC-1 and NC-3 went too high for me (plus I don't chase the NC's) but for a little while I thought I might have a chance at his 1801 S-218. It was a nice G-4 and opened at 775. with almost no interest! For moment it looked like I might be able to pick it up for under $1,200. Then the crowd woke up and the bidding took off. It finally closed at $3,200. I tried for a few other pieces but got shut out each time. I had to settle for his counterstamped 1824 cent from the 1989 EAC convention in Cincinnati. (N-4)
Sunday April 27th
The Annual meeting began around 9:00 AM with the traditional round of introductions. Everyone stood up gave his name and what he collected. Next years convention in San Deigo was discussed. A brief statement of the solvency of the oganization was made. We currently have a comfortable amount in the bank, all of our bills are paid and we are not owed anything. the planned vote to be taken on the changes to the bylaws was postponed as they are still being worked on by our legal representatives and although they could probably have been ready for the convention it was felt that it would not be fair to ask for a vote on material that the membership had not had time to fully study. A question was raised as to whether or not the club financially supported the various censuses that were kept on the early, middle, and latedate cent collections, and the half cent census, and if they weren't why didn't the club start doing so. A couple of the census keepers answered that the club did not fund them and that they were volenteer publications. Donations are not usually solicited but were welcome. I also explained that this suggestion had been made in the past declined. The reason being that the censuses are strictly a "give to get" arrangement. If you don't contribute your data, you don't see anyone elses. But that if the club funded the studies there would sooner or later be pressure put upon the compilers to provide the information to the whole body of the membership since after all their dues were funding it. This loss of privacy would then result in many census members withdrawing their collections and thus making the census much less useful. Also in the past there had been problems with unauthorized people getting their hands on copies of the census and then soliciting the contributors with either offers to sell them coins or buy coins from them. (I know about this because I compiled and published one of the early date censuses for two years. There was an even worse attempted abuse of the census during that time that I didn't discuss.)
The upcoming sale of Griffee's St Patrick farthings was announced and after some other discussion the meeting closed and we adjurned to the bourse. By that time the show was winding down and several of the dealers had already left. I picked up my auction lot, did a little business on the bourse and left for home about noon.
Tom
or in words better suited to my professional career...great post! Thanks!
Tbig
New collectors, please educate yourself before spending money on coins; there are people who believe that using numismatic knowledge to rip the naïve is what this hobby is all about.
ROTFLMAO!!!! nice little ?faux pax? there mike!!
al h.
<< <i>I don't remember what the coin was but we had 12 of the 11 known specimens all in one place at one time!)
ROTFLMAO!!!! nice little ?faux pax? there mike!! >>
It's NOT a error in my statement. There were 11 specimens of the coin "known" and all 11 were at the happening PLUS a previously unknown 12th specimen was brought in.
in that case it gives a lot of credence to the happenings!! imagine, another example of a rare coin surfacing like that. do you remember what everyones reaction was to it. BTW, it's still afunny statement as you wrote it!!
al h.