Coin Show Report - White Plains, NY
DaveG
Posts: 3,535 ✭
I went to the four-times-a-year White Plains show today. As usual, it was "upstairs" at the Westchester County Center and advertised 150 dealers, although, I would guess that close to 1/3 of the dealers there were stamp dealers. The next show is scheduled for Jan. 21-23 and advertises 100 dealers, so I presume it will be "downstairs," in the smaller room.
Usually, Friday (the first day of this three-day show) is fairly quiet, but, of course, today is the one Friday when most of us working people can take off to go to a coin show, so the floor was pretty busy from when I got there (about 1:00) to about 3:00.
I met Wihlborg fairly soon after I got to the show and he was nice enough to show me his box of really impressive toned commems and buffaloes. Wow! what a group of nice coins!
Somewhat to my surprise, a couple of dealers I had expected to be there weren't, so there was something of an absence of material that appealed to me. In general, I didn't see much C-, D- or O-mint pre-Civil War gold, nor did I see as much old tenor gold as I have frequently seen at this show. There was a decided weakness of Seated material, as well, especially Seated dollars.
I saw one dealer who had two NGC-55 1851-O eagles, one of which was labeled as being from the SS Republic. While I didn't look at them closely, I thought that the Republic coin was a bit too "bright", but otherwise not that different from the "regular" coin. I hope that NGC will be able to tell these coins apart from the non-shipwreck coins, otherwise, there may be a groundswell of these coins being cracked out and resubmitted without the pedigree.
I also saw an NGC-50 (or 55) 1859-S half, which, I believe, is the first piece of pre-Civil War S-mint silver I've ever seen. Unfortunately, I felt that the coin had been over-dipped. It was far too white and lifeless for my taste.
While I didn't see any coins that called my name today, I did see several items that were a bit down my list of priorities. But, I kept my powder dry, as I'm going to Baltimore on Friday and expect to see at least several of the same dealers (we'll see if they still have the same items).
I saw some attractive exonumia, such as a Weinman-designed 1904 St. Louis exhibition medal and a Bryan dollar (the one with the wagon-wheel on it), as well as an attractively toned (i.e., original surface) ANACS-45 1855-O half dollar.
But, the only item I bought today was a PCGS-64 1904-O Morgan. (By the way, this is the first PCGS-slabbed coin I've ever bought for itself, rather than its being in a rattler slab!) Actually, I bought the coin more for its story than for itself, as I'm not really collecting Morgans anymore.
For those of you who don't know the story, according to Bowers' Silver Dollar Encyclopedia, only a few hundred thousand of the 3.7 million coin mintage were believed to have been put into circulation. (This is the last dollar minted in New Orleans, by the way.) According to Bowers, until the Treasury releases in late 1962, the 1904-O (along with its more famous brother, the 1903-O) was one of the rarest Morgan dollars. Today, of course, as a result of the release of perhaps a million uncirculated coins, it's not expensive. Bowers says that the price of an uncirculated 1904-O was $260 in 1960 (perhaps $700 in today's dollars), but $3.50 in 1965!
I think the coin itself is rather attractive - blast white, but with a light die crack that connects the "* U N I T E" to add some character to the proof-like reverse. The obverse is lightly proof-like, as well.
Well, two shows down, three (Clifton Club show on Sunday, Baltimore on Friday and Saturday and Parsippany next Sunday) to go!
Usually, Friday (the first day of this three-day show) is fairly quiet, but, of course, today is the one Friday when most of us working people can take off to go to a coin show, so the floor was pretty busy from when I got there (about 1:00) to about 3:00.
I met Wihlborg fairly soon after I got to the show and he was nice enough to show me his box of really impressive toned commems and buffaloes. Wow! what a group of nice coins!
Somewhat to my surprise, a couple of dealers I had expected to be there weren't, so there was something of an absence of material that appealed to me. In general, I didn't see much C-, D- or O-mint pre-Civil War gold, nor did I see as much old tenor gold as I have frequently seen at this show. There was a decided weakness of Seated material, as well, especially Seated dollars.
I saw one dealer who had two NGC-55 1851-O eagles, one of which was labeled as being from the SS Republic. While I didn't look at them closely, I thought that the Republic coin was a bit too "bright", but otherwise not that different from the "regular" coin. I hope that NGC will be able to tell these coins apart from the non-shipwreck coins, otherwise, there may be a groundswell of these coins being cracked out and resubmitted without the pedigree.
I also saw an NGC-50 (or 55) 1859-S half, which, I believe, is the first piece of pre-Civil War S-mint silver I've ever seen. Unfortunately, I felt that the coin had been over-dipped. It was far too white and lifeless for my taste.
While I didn't see any coins that called my name today, I did see several items that were a bit down my list of priorities. But, I kept my powder dry, as I'm going to Baltimore on Friday and expect to see at least several of the same dealers (we'll see if they still have the same items).
I saw some attractive exonumia, such as a Weinman-designed 1904 St. Louis exhibition medal and a Bryan dollar (the one with the wagon-wheel on it), as well as an attractively toned (i.e., original surface) ANACS-45 1855-O half dollar.
But, the only item I bought today was a PCGS-64 1904-O Morgan. (By the way, this is the first PCGS-slabbed coin I've ever bought for itself, rather than its being in a rattler slab!) Actually, I bought the coin more for its story than for itself, as I'm not really collecting Morgans anymore.
For those of you who don't know the story, according to Bowers' Silver Dollar Encyclopedia, only a few hundred thousand of the 3.7 million coin mintage were believed to have been put into circulation. (This is the last dollar minted in New Orleans, by the way.) According to Bowers, until the Treasury releases in late 1962, the 1904-O (along with its more famous brother, the 1903-O) was one of the rarest Morgan dollars. Today, of course, as a result of the release of perhaps a million uncirculated coins, it's not expensive. Bowers says that the price of an uncirculated 1904-O was $260 in 1960 (perhaps $700 in today's dollars), but $3.50 in 1965!
I think the coin itself is rather attractive - blast white, but with a light die crack that connects the "* U N I T E" to add some character to the proof-like reverse. The obverse is lightly proof-like, as well.
Well, two shows down, three (Clifton Club show on Sunday, Baltimore on Friday and Saturday and Parsippany next Sunday) to go!
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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.
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
One dealer had an 1822/1 bust half in NGC 65, an 1856-0 half in NGC 66 and a rare 1852-0 half in NGC64. All prices were basically at CDN bid and were reasonable values. The 52-0 half was tied for 2nd highest graded with the Eliasberg 52-0. This was a very pretty coin with Wayte Raymond type color on the obverse. .
Another dealer had 3-4 cases of wonderfully toned Morgans. I was drawn to the number of beautiful peace dollars he had. Those you usually don't see.
The lack of nice saints in any grades was very apparent. Among the whole floor only 4 MS65 saints were displayed (one a high relief). There maybe 10-20 or so MS64's. Even Westwood Coin which has weekly buy ads in Coin World didn't show much in the way of gold.
I don't recall seeing a 65 Saint in his case. I decided to ask one seller what he was asking for his MS65 saints as he had two. His intial reply was "these are going up every week, I think those are around $1700." He then did some rustling of the grey sheet, was on his cell phone for a few seconds (calling Heritage?), and then proceeded to quote $1500. Still too much for me. I can only guess by the lack of higher grade saints that either these guys were all sold out, or were keeping what they had left for future shows.
It looked like the stamp dealers continued to expand on the number of tables at the show. I'd say fully 50% or more of this show is now stamps.
roadrunner