ANA Show Report: August 20, 2004
RYK
Posts: 35,797 ✭✭✭✭✭
Today's visit to the ANA, unlike yesterday's, was devoted to my own personal coin pursuits.
It started a little after eight when I arrived at the convention center and perused all of the Heritage auction lots for the gold coins to be sold later in the day. Overall, I was unimpressed with the offering though there were some major rarities/keys being offered (ie. Two 1796 No Stars Quarter Eagles). Looking at auction lots, in my opinion, is one of the best ways to learn about coins.
At ten o'clock when the show opened, I headed to the PCGS booth to meet David Hall and have him look at a couple of my coins. The man in front of me had an interesting raw assortment: a counterfeit Continental Dollar, a circulated and maybe counterfeit High Relief Saint, and a possible bust half error coin. Next, to the Gold Rush Gallery table where I caught up with board member "Dahlonega". After some show-and-tell, which included a few eye-popping coins (his coins, not mine), I proceeded to the Pinnacle table and had show-and-tell with Doug Winter. There was a small transaction, which amounted to a trade with me getting a nice, original 1856-O $10.
Next to NGC to get my 1883 $3 officially pedigreed to the Norweb collection and then a beeline to the PCGS Registry luncheon. There I waited in line and sat with foodude, and David Hall later came down and sat at our table. It was an excellent lunch, followed by presentation of awards for best sets, and then a Q&A with David Hall.
I ducked out a little early to go back to the floor. At Jade Coins table, Dennis sold me the perfect 1918/7-D buffalo nickel to go with my son's set (ANACS AG details, net Fr-2!). Back to Gold Rush Gallery's table to pick up a nice-for-the-grade and price 1846/5-O VF-35 $10. More importantly, after basically being told by both DW and Dahlonega that my loupe sucked (my words, not theirs), Dahlonega hooked me up with a better one. Now, hopefully, I will be able to see what they do!
I stopped by the Broken CC table to say hello to Aaron and Allen. I also stopped by to see RKKay's patterns and browsed the floor a bit more looking for standing quarters for a friend, ran into Frank a couple of times, and eventually made it to the seminar on Grading, Buying, and Selling US Coins given by Greg Rohan of Heritage. Greg gave a nice overview of the market and answered our questions well and with interesting and illustrative anecdotes. My favorite was the story of the two bidders who ran up the price of a $60,000 mercury dime to over $200,000, one a dealer who was instructed to "buy the coin" by his client and the other the wife of a collector who wanted to but the coin for a birthday present for her husband, who needed to complete his set.
My last stop was at the Legend table where Steve/EVP taught me about Seated Dollars and Laura showed me an 1884 Trade $1--not everday you get to hold one of those. I bought a nice 1912 Saint and left the bourse for good. On the way out, I stopped by the exhibits and marveled over a complete set of $3's (AU-Proof). I spent an hour at the Heritage auction for the gold coins. The auction, to me, was ice cold. Floor bidding was minimal, and I understand that it might be due to the sales tax charged for in-state auction purchases--I do not know. Only a few folks in the audience were active and not very active. Quite a few lots did not meet reserve. For those who think that PCGS is better than NGC, the PCGS-58 1796 $2.50 hammered at $85,000 ("to the book") and the NGC-58 1796 QE hammered at $105,000. I left after the $3's to have dinner with good (coin) friends.
Most of the dealers said that they were having a good show. There were a ton of freebies and samples offered. I picked up an NGC slab box, samples of Coin Values and Coin World, a noted pad with a new, "crisp"
$1, to name a few.
Overall, I had a good time, learned a lot, but enjoyed most the time spent with new and old friends.
It started a little after eight when I arrived at the convention center and perused all of the Heritage auction lots for the gold coins to be sold later in the day. Overall, I was unimpressed with the offering though there were some major rarities/keys being offered (ie. Two 1796 No Stars Quarter Eagles). Looking at auction lots, in my opinion, is one of the best ways to learn about coins.
At ten o'clock when the show opened, I headed to the PCGS booth to meet David Hall and have him look at a couple of my coins. The man in front of me had an interesting raw assortment: a counterfeit Continental Dollar, a circulated and maybe counterfeit High Relief Saint, and a possible bust half error coin. Next, to the Gold Rush Gallery table where I caught up with board member "Dahlonega". After some show-and-tell, which included a few eye-popping coins (his coins, not mine), I proceeded to the Pinnacle table and had show-and-tell with Doug Winter. There was a small transaction, which amounted to a trade with me getting a nice, original 1856-O $10.
Next to NGC to get my 1883 $3 officially pedigreed to the Norweb collection and then a beeline to the PCGS Registry luncheon. There I waited in line and sat with foodude, and David Hall later came down and sat at our table. It was an excellent lunch, followed by presentation of awards for best sets, and then a Q&A with David Hall.
I ducked out a little early to go back to the floor. At Jade Coins table, Dennis sold me the perfect 1918/7-D buffalo nickel to go with my son's set (ANACS AG details, net Fr-2!). Back to Gold Rush Gallery's table to pick up a nice-for-the-grade and price 1846/5-O VF-35 $10. More importantly, after basically being told by both DW and Dahlonega that my loupe sucked (my words, not theirs), Dahlonega hooked me up with a better one. Now, hopefully, I will be able to see what they do!
I stopped by the Broken CC table to say hello to Aaron and Allen. I also stopped by to see RKKay's patterns and browsed the floor a bit more looking for standing quarters for a friend, ran into Frank a couple of times, and eventually made it to the seminar on Grading, Buying, and Selling US Coins given by Greg Rohan of Heritage. Greg gave a nice overview of the market and answered our questions well and with interesting and illustrative anecdotes. My favorite was the story of the two bidders who ran up the price of a $60,000 mercury dime to over $200,000, one a dealer who was instructed to "buy the coin" by his client and the other the wife of a collector who wanted to but the coin for a birthday present for her husband, who needed to complete his set.
My last stop was at the Legend table where Steve/EVP taught me about Seated Dollars and Laura showed me an 1884 Trade $1--not everday you get to hold one of those. I bought a nice 1912 Saint and left the bourse for good. On the way out, I stopped by the exhibits and marveled over a complete set of $3's (AU-Proof). I spent an hour at the Heritage auction for the gold coins. The auction, to me, was ice cold. Floor bidding was minimal, and I understand that it might be due to the sales tax charged for in-state auction purchases--I do not know. Only a few folks in the audience were active and not very active. Quite a few lots did not meet reserve. For those who think that PCGS is better than NGC, the PCGS-58 1796 $2.50 hammered at $85,000 ("to the book") and the NGC-58 1796 QE hammered at $105,000. I left after the $3's to have dinner with good (coin) friends.
Most of the dealers said that they were having a good show. There were a ton of freebies and samples offered. I picked up an NGC slab box, samples of Coin Values and Coin World, a noted pad with a new, "crisp"
$1, to name a few.Overall, I had a good time, learned a lot, but enjoyed most the time spent with new and old friends.
0
Comments
Were they both bidding for the same person? Who won?
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While I did see a considerably greater proportion of PCGS slabs than at my recent visit to a local show, I will note that there were some dealers present who previously had a large inventory of better date gold coins in PCGS holders who now had almost exclusively NGC slabs.
Dealers work especially hard at these shows and get really burnt out. Some were there (Pittsburgh) since a week ago Thursday doing coin-related stuff (pre-ANA, auctions, etc.). If you see your friendly dealer acting a little less than friendly, give them a break.
I learned that Heritage will only take consignments over $5000 when I inquired about consigning an individual coin of less than that value.
Our own TDN was the current leader in the collector division of the PCGS World Series of Grading at the time of the PCGS luncheon.
People were generally polite, friendly, and well-mannered (so long as you are). I wonder if some of this talk of poor treatment and boorish behavior by dealers sometimes reported here is in response to rude behavior by customers.
DaveG, there was very little interesting "O" mint gold on the floor. I did not see any of the key/better dates (besides the one I acquired) and the examples I did see were generally low end for the grade. As usual, there was far more C and D mint gold around than O mint gold. O mint $20's were non-existent on the bourse. The better southern gold coins were mostly where you would expect to see them: Pinnacle and Gold Rush Gallery. I did see one 66-S No Motto gold coin (a half eagle) in AU-50 which was properly graded but a little bit marky offered for less than CDN (but still expensive), which made me think the demand for that interesting niche has peaked. Superior had a 66-S No Motto $10 PCGS-45 that hammered for twice Trends, and Heritage had a 66-S $20 PCGS-40 that was somewhat light on eye appeal sold for 10% over Trends.
Today, I am skipping the ANA and taking my son to a local amusement park (weather permitting--it's been rainy the last two days) and to the Steelers preseason opener. As much as I would like to make a coin collector out of him, I would also like to make him a Steelers fan!
Wolf, the coin went to the dealer.
Reece, I too hope we meet.
I see ANACS as a solid third. I made up my mind about a year ago to use these three services and no one else.
Paul
<< <i>There were a ton of freebies and samples offered. I picked up ..... a noted pad with a new "crisp"
>>
Please stop rubbing it in!!!!
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Thanks for the report!
Dave
Check out the Southern Gold Society
I spent the rest of my time in Pittsburgh doing things with my family including the Steelers game on Saturday night and Kennywood Park today. I did not return to the show after Friday.
I disagree. If you had access to the coins fresh from the services, then a bit closer to equal footing. But by the time they are available to you for purchase, there are significant differences.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
I saw an 1898-S $20 in P 4 that I really liked. Wanted to buy it but then I rememered my wife was right behind me.
I dreamt about that coin. It was a really a 5.
Now you're talking!!!
Good report too!!