Baltimore Show Report Including Stinking Money and High Speed Adventure (Perhaps Too Long and Not Ve
TomB
Posts: 22,124 ✭✭✭✭✭
This thread is awfully late for a Baltimore show report. Once the report got pushed back a bit, I debated whether or not folks would even be interested in reading another thread about the show at such a late date, but decided to post these observations anyway. Typically, I attend the Baltimore shows from Thursday through Saturday, which requires the purchase of a super-bourse badge and donation to the Baltimore Children’s Hospital for $100. However, when I attempted to reserve a hotel room at the show rate the web-based system was indicating that all reserved rooms were already booked. Therefore, I stayed outside of Baltimore and cut the show down to only Friday and Saturday. This means that the show report, while representative of what I witnessed over the course of two days, does not have the level of detail of previous reports.
The drive from eastern Connecticut was fairly smooth, but the change in temperature was surprising since it had been 39 degrees at 1:30 PM Thursday when I left home, but at 5:00 PM in New Jersey it was already 74 degrees. That was a heck of a shock, and the weather would stay relatively balmy throughout my stay. Driving into Baltimore the next morning I paid a toll and received my change for a twenty. A little further down the highway I noticed that something didn’t smell quite right. In fact, something smelled downright nasty, like urine. Since I was fairly confident it wasn’t a new problem with incontinence, I rolled down my windows to air the car out, but the smell wouldn’t go away. The only thing different about the contents of my car from before the smell to after the smell was the addition of the money I received in change from the toll clerk. Sure enough, the ten-dollar bill stank like urine. Not just a little stink, but a big, whopping stink. If it was a one-dollar bill I might have let it “accidentally” float out the open window, but a ten-dollar bill would require a different strategy. I parked at the Sheraton, made a beeline down to the check-in counter and politely asked for change for a ten-dollar bill. Moments later I was the happy recipient of five one-dollar bills and one five-dollar bill, none of which stank any different than typical currency. Of course, I also immediately went into the restroom and washed my hands of the last traces of the offending ten-dollar bill. It’s amazing how little solutions to life’s problems make one feel satisfied.
The show was easy to sign into, but the badges were large, initially sticky nametags that had faulty glue. I quickly removed mine and no one seemed to care. The bourse appeared to be the same size as previous and had a stronger Whitman presence, which should not be surprising. I had several coins to sell that included two better date Washington quarters that were initially listed on the BS&T board as well as a nicely toned Merc. Within the first hour the coins were sold to dealers at the level that I had been asking on the BS&T and all the dealers seemed quite happy. The only odd thing was that the 1936-S Washington quarter graded PCGS MS65 was looked at by approximately six dealers before someone bought the piece. Everyone commented on how pretty it was, with terrific luster and very light obverse toning, but they also universally lamented that it wasn’t quite white enough for them to move the coin to one of their clients. In other words, it was too original even though it was quite pretty.
The bourse appeared lightly populated, but this is quite typical for early on a Friday, and I was able to make it through the myriad aisles quite easily. I stopped to speak with many familiar faces at their tables including Mike Printz, Sheridan Downey, Dahlonega, njcoincrank, BigMoose, Newmismatist, ColonialCoinUnion, CoinRaritiesOnline, Wayne Herndon and TBT among others. One person whom I spoke with at some length for the first time was poorguy and it became a small party when Mike Printz and airplanenut joined us for a while. Friday night was spent with Michael, chinook/cohodk and coindeuce before Michael had to leave and we three ended up woofing down burgers. It is always a pleasure to meet up with Michael and chinook/cohodk, but this was the first time I met coindeuce and it was the first time that a board member didn’t recognize my user ID and thought I was purely a lurker, which can perhaps put things into a different perspective. Saturday after the show I made the trip to supertooth’s house, which has become a Baltimore show tradition, and spent the night with the supertooth clan. Supertooth’s adult son, who is a collector but not a member of the boards, joined us as we poured through stacks of WLHs, Washington quarters and fantastic home-cooked food courtesy of Mrs. supertooth.
Sunday morning I headed back to Connecticut only to have an approximately eight-inch section of railroad tie eject from the bed of a pickup truck while driving through a high speed section of seldom used northern New Jersey highway, yes, there is such a thing, and have the railroad tie bounce in a crazy and unpredictable manner squarely under my front driver’s side tire. The resulting impact made all the change in my car slam into the roof, the glass bottle of iced tea in the cup holder fly into the windshield and the car heave up momentarily. I managed to stay in my lane and not hit anyone, but my steering wheel was misaligned by 75 degrees after that with the steering being quite soft and incomplete at certain angles and the suspension being very hard and unforgiving. Luckily, a Sears was open and two new tires were put onto the car to replace the tire with a five-inch long by two-inch wide bubble that was sticking out more than one-half inch. The struts were bent, and had to be manually and incompletely, bent back. The technicians at Sears were amazed that I didn’t drive off the road with the damage that the car took. After the three-hour odyssey I was certain the trip would be smooth until I came home to find out that my wife had been in the hospital ER all day with strep throat that our younger daughter had given to her. At least everything has been smooth since then with the car fixed and my wife and daughters healthy.
Although the social interactions were quite nice, I found the pickings on the floor to be slim, in my opinion, for coins that interested me. Here are some of the observations.
-The number of better-toned Morgan dollars appears to be drying up and this might be due to folks retaining the coins in their collections. Perhaps they cannot sell the pieces for an attractive price, or perhaps they are holding onto them for the long-term.
-An “original bag” of 1885-O Morgan dollars was for sale at $72,000 and perhaps three-dozen of the coins had been removed and put into individual flips to highlight the classic bag-toned appearance that these sometimes obtain.
-More original looking late date, mid-grade CBHs were on the floor than at recent shows and I do not think the asking prices were outrageous.
-Sheridan Downey had a fabulous 1795 Flowing Hair counterfeit half-dollar obverse die at his table. It was not for sale, but close inspection showed that the workmanship was fairly good even though there were only fourteen obverse stars included along the edge.
-Trade dollars and twenty-cent pieces in original, attractive VF-EF were not around, which should not be surprising, but at this show they seemed to be especially missing.
-The modern 2006-W bullion silver coins were at some tables, but I did not notice any of the corresponding gold issues.
-One dealer had seven certified Gobrecht dollars that ranged in grade from PF40 through PF61 and the two lowest graded pieces appeared by far to be the most original and attractive in the group.
-Sheridan Downey also had a unique obverse brockage 1806 quarter and a unique reverse brockage 1806 quarter. The two were quite cool when paired up with one another.
-The larger Spanish reales denominations of 4R and 8R were even tougher to find than typical.
-The PCGS and NGC booths were not hopping with activity when I checked them, which was in stark contrast to some shows I have attended.
-More dealers appeared to be selling coinage on consignment rather than through inventory; at least more dealers were telling me of this strategy.
-The many folks who write on these boards that they will enter the matte proof Lincoln niche had better be prepared to pay far higher prices than any guidebook or pricelist suggests if they intend to obtain an attractive example.
-Joe Kaminski of Kaminski Coin Company was handing out a full color article that he had written titled “Grey Sheet Pricing vs. Market Values”, which contained many images of coins that traded at premium, sheet or discount. This would be valuable for many folks to read.
-Two canvas Philadelphia Mint bags for double eagles were for sale, one bag from 1925 and the other from 1928, I believe. The bags, in different type face although only three years apart, appeared to be about six-inches wide by fourteen or so inches high and contained $5,000 in double eagles at time of issue.
-One dealer had a table almost entirely devoted to AT coinage, though there was no sign on his table to tell folks that the coins were severely manipulated.
-Nice classic silver commems were grossly overrun by dipped classic silver commems, which has been the norm for a number of years. This is a niche market that I think is undervalued if one can obtain the nicer coins at near-generic prices.
-Gold coinage with original skin was as rare as hen’s teeth.
-The unique Barber half reverse brockage was for sale and I examined the coin closely. To tell the truth, I thought the price quoted was quite reasonable for what was offered, but was far out of what I had to spend for such a coin.
-Currency seemed to be selling hotter than at recent shows and appeared to take more total space at the show.
-Several dealers commented that any post-1940 cent was dead, in their opinion, and that they had to almost give the coin away regardless of grade or TPG slab.
-The 1893-S Morgan dollar is still the most common key date coin, in my experience, that one might look for at any larger show. However, the 1916 SLQ appears to have taken over second place in that dubious list by nosing out the perennial second place finisher, the 1909-S VDB Lincoln. There were many of each coin available in nearly any grade (excluding MS 1893-S Morgan dollars) or TPG flavor one could want.
-Several dealers told me that not only did they have no early WLHs in stock, but that they would pay handsomely to obtain any for inventory and would buy as many as I could provide.
-My single purchase for myself at the show was an original, attractive, solid for the grade AG3/G4 1909-O Barber quarter.
The drive from eastern Connecticut was fairly smooth, but the change in temperature was surprising since it had been 39 degrees at 1:30 PM Thursday when I left home, but at 5:00 PM in New Jersey it was already 74 degrees. That was a heck of a shock, and the weather would stay relatively balmy throughout my stay. Driving into Baltimore the next morning I paid a toll and received my change for a twenty. A little further down the highway I noticed that something didn’t smell quite right. In fact, something smelled downright nasty, like urine. Since I was fairly confident it wasn’t a new problem with incontinence, I rolled down my windows to air the car out, but the smell wouldn’t go away. The only thing different about the contents of my car from before the smell to after the smell was the addition of the money I received in change from the toll clerk. Sure enough, the ten-dollar bill stank like urine. Not just a little stink, but a big, whopping stink. If it was a one-dollar bill I might have let it “accidentally” float out the open window, but a ten-dollar bill would require a different strategy. I parked at the Sheraton, made a beeline down to the check-in counter and politely asked for change for a ten-dollar bill. Moments later I was the happy recipient of five one-dollar bills and one five-dollar bill, none of which stank any different than typical currency. Of course, I also immediately went into the restroom and washed my hands of the last traces of the offending ten-dollar bill. It’s amazing how little solutions to life’s problems make one feel satisfied.
The show was easy to sign into, but the badges were large, initially sticky nametags that had faulty glue. I quickly removed mine and no one seemed to care. The bourse appeared to be the same size as previous and had a stronger Whitman presence, which should not be surprising. I had several coins to sell that included two better date Washington quarters that were initially listed on the BS&T board as well as a nicely toned Merc. Within the first hour the coins were sold to dealers at the level that I had been asking on the BS&T and all the dealers seemed quite happy. The only odd thing was that the 1936-S Washington quarter graded PCGS MS65 was looked at by approximately six dealers before someone bought the piece. Everyone commented on how pretty it was, with terrific luster and very light obverse toning, but they also universally lamented that it wasn’t quite white enough for them to move the coin to one of their clients. In other words, it was too original even though it was quite pretty.
The bourse appeared lightly populated, but this is quite typical for early on a Friday, and I was able to make it through the myriad aisles quite easily. I stopped to speak with many familiar faces at their tables including Mike Printz, Sheridan Downey, Dahlonega, njcoincrank, BigMoose, Newmismatist, ColonialCoinUnion, CoinRaritiesOnline, Wayne Herndon and TBT among others. One person whom I spoke with at some length for the first time was poorguy and it became a small party when Mike Printz and airplanenut joined us for a while. Friday night was spent with Michael, chinook/cohodk and coindeuce before Michael had to leave and we three ended up woofing down burgers. It is always a pleasure to meet up with Michael and chinook/cohodk, but this was the first time I met coindeuce and it was the first time that a board member didn’t recognize my user ID and thought I was purely a lurker, which can perhaps put things into a different perspective. Saturday after the show I made the trip to supertooth’s house, which has become a Baltimore show tradition, and spent the night with the supertooth clan. Supertooth’s adult son, who is a collector but not a member of the boards, joined us as we poured through stacks of WLHs, Washington quarters and fantastic home-cooked food courtesy of Mrs. supertooth.
Sunday morning I headed back to Connecticut only to have an approximately eight-inch section of railroad tie eject from the bed of a pickup truck while driving through a high speed section of seldom used northern New Jersey highway, yes, there is such a thing, and have the railroad tie bounce in a crazy and unpredictable manner squarely under my front driver’s side tire. The resulting impact made all the change in my car slam into the roof, the glass bottle of iced tea in the cup holder fly into the windshield and the car heave up momentarily. I managed to stay in my lane and not hit anyone, but my steering wheel was misaligned by 75 degrees after that with the steering being quite soft and incomplete at certain angles and the suspension being very hard and unforgiving. Luckily, a Sears was open and two new tires were put onto the car to replace the tire with a five-inch long by two-inch wide bubble that was sticking out more than one-half inch. The struts were bent, and had to be manually and incompletely, bent back. The technicians at Sears were amazed that I didn’t drive off the road with the damage that the car took. After the three-hour odyssey I was certain the trip would be smooth until I came home to find out that my wife had been in the hospital ER all day with strep throat that our younger daughter had given to her. At least everything has been smooth since then with the car fixed and my wife and daughters healthy.
Although the social interactions were quite nice, I found the pickings on the floor to be slim, in my opinion, for coins that interested me. Here are some of the observations.
-The number of better-toned Morgan dollars appears to be drying up and this might be due to folks retaining the coins in their collections. Perhaps they cannot sell the pieces for an attractive price, or perhaps they are holding onto them for the long-term.
-An “original bag” of 1885-O Morgan dollars was for sale at $72,000 and perhaps three-dozen of the coins had been removed and put into individual flips to highlight the classic bag-toned appearance that these sometimes obtain.
-More original looking late date, mid-grade CBHs were on the floor than at recent shows and I do not think the asking prices were outrageous.
-Sheridan Downey had a fabulous 1795 Flowing Hair counterfeit half-dollar obverse die at his table. It was not for sale, but close inspection showed that the workmanship was fairly good even though there were only fourteen obverse stars included along the edge.
-Trade dollars and twenty-cent pieces in original, attractive VF-EF were not around, which should not be surprising, but at this show they seemed to be especially missing.
-The modern 2006-W bullion silver coins were at some tables, but I did not notice any of the corresponding gold issues.
-One dealer had seven certified Gobrecht dollars that ranged in grade from PF40 through PF61 and the two lowest graded pieces appeared by far to be the most original and attractive in the group.
-Sheridan Downey also had a unique obverse brockage 1806 quarter and a unique reverse brockage 1806 quarter. The two were quite cool when paired up with one another.
-The larger Spanish reales denominations of 4R and 8R were even tougher to find than typical.
-The PCGS and NGC booths were not hopping with activity when I checked them, which was in stark contrast to some shows I have attended.
-More dealers appeared to be selling coinage on consignment rather than through inventory; at least more dealers were telling me of this strategy.
-The many folks who write on these boards that they will enter the matte proof Lincoln niche had better be prepared to pay far higher prices than any guidebook or pricelist suggests if they intend to obtain an attractive example.
-Joe Kaminski of Kaminski Coin Company was handing out a full color article that he had written titled “Grey Sheet Pricing vs. Market Values”, which contained many images of coins that traded at premium, sheet or discount. This would be valuable for many folks to read.
-Two canvas Philadelphia Mint bags for double eagles were for sale, one bag from 1925 and the other from 1928, I believe. The bags, in different type face although only three years apart, appeared to be about six-inches wide by fourteen or so inches high and contained $5,000 in double eagles at time of issue.
-One dealer had a table almost entirely devoted to AT coinage, though there was no sign on his table to tell folks that the coins were severely manipulated.
-Nice classic silver commems were grossly overrun by dipped classic silver commems, which has been the norm for a number of years. This is a niche market that I think is undervalued if one can obtain the nicer coins at near-generic prices.
-Gold coinage with original skin was as rare as hen’s teeth.
-The unique Barber half reverse brockage was for sale and I examined the coin closely. To tell the truth, I thought the price quoted was quite reasonable for what was offered, but was far out of what I had to spend for such a coin.
-Currency seemed to be selling hotter than at recent shows and appeared to take more total space at the show.
-Several dealers commented that any post-1940 cent was dead, in their opinion, and that they had to almost give the coin away regardless of grade or TPG slab.
-The 1893-S Morgan dollar is still the most common key date coin, in my experience, that one might look for at any larger show. However, the 1916 SLQ appears to have taken over second place in that dubious list by nosing out the perennial second place finisher, the 1909-S VDB Lincoln. There were many of each coin available in nearly any grade (excluding MS 1893-S Morgan dollars) or TPG flavor one could want.
-Several dealers told me that not only did they have no early WLHs in stock, but that they would pay handsomely to obtain any for inventory and would buy as many as I could provide.
-My single purchase for myself at the show was an original, attractive, solid for the grade AG3/G4 1909-O Barber quarter.
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Comments
I found the comments about bust halves being available at non-outrageous prices to be interesting. A year ago I would have expected different sentiment from collectors.
In my short time around the bourse, the observation I noticed most was with regards to the toned dollars... no kidding they were harder to find, and those that were there were often of lesser quality than at previous shows. That is, of course, not to say that they were not hyped in the cases. The usual suspects had some spectacular pieces, but the rest, not so much.
Your comment about original gold also struck me... but as an incomplete statement. Though I didn't look at much (limited time and looking for what's in my main interest group), I did notice that it's not just gold anymore that's hard to find original. More and more silver, circulated and not, is showing up not even just a bit unoriginal, but totally lacking originality. Unfortunately, the services seem to be rewarding the practice--or at least not punishing it enough. I recall one early dime (early seated or a bust, I can't recall) that was whiter than a dipped out 1964 dime. It pained me to see something so obviously unnatural, but it was slabbed. That's a coin that someone who is only buying plastic will buy, and he'll be stuck for a long time.
may I respond with the following;
Thank heavens you are safe and not injured.
Wonderful and informative report. With such quality
reports, the longer they are the better.
Your observations of the show, gives a good feel for the
market, for us common folks.
Glad you had a good time, minus the odoriferous $10
and the rail road track episode.
Thanks for taking the time to share with all of us stay at homes.
Camelot
Your comment about gold seems to be the norm these days. I don't know how and where NGC continues to find 100+ year gold that is completely free of any "skin."
I am glad to hear you made it home in one piece.
Is this a true story or some sort of sly, twisted numismatic parable?
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
<< <i>Is this a true story or some sort of sly, twisted numismatic parable? >>
I'm not clever enough to make any of this stuff up, Andy.
In honor of the memory of Cpl. Michael E. Thompson
<< <i>It’s amazing how little solutions to life’s problems make one feel satisfied. >>
Apparently, using a $10 bill as a toilet is one of those little solutions
NSDR - Life Member
SSDC - Life Member
ANA - Pay As I Go Member
<< <i>. . . was as rare as hen’s teeth. >>
I've never heard this expression used in a non-numismatic context, or by anyone other than QDB.
Glad to hear you made it through the accident in as good a shape as you did!
Never met you, but you've always seemed to be one of the good guys, always enjoy your comments and show reports.
z
<< <i>Maybe it was the astronaut-lady's ten-spot.... >>
LOL! If it might have been, it could be sold as that on eBay.
NSDR - Life Member
SSDC - Life Member
ANA - Pay As I Go Member
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.
You incident on the drive back (thankfully you or others were not injured) unfortunately is not uncommon. Items whether rail road ties; ladders; spare tires; wheel barrows; etc. fall off vehicles all the time and oftentimes it is others paying for it with their lives.
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
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