My long Pittsburgh ANA report
kranky
Posts: 8,709 ✭✭✭
Worked the 3 day show at PTVETTER’s table. The show was not only the ANA, but also the fall show of PAN, our state coin organization. For me the highlight is meeting forum members and seeing great coins, as well as trying to give good advice to collectors who stop by the table with questions.
I know some said it was a terrible show. But I know two dealers who said it was the best show they had ever had sales-wise. It may not have been a nuclear white-hot show for five- and six-figure coins, but it certainly was not an unmitigated disaster for everyone. One dealer said Saturday was great, outdoing the previous two days combined when typically the last day of a show is a down day. I suppose it depends on what material you have. I don’t accept that simply because a show doesn’t kick butt for certain material it means it was a flop across the board.
It was unfortunate that I missed an opportunity to meet some forum members who I learned were there, but I did see quite a few – Papabear, njcoincrank, quarterjack, RickMilauskas, tootawl, golddustin, raybob15239, pistareen, vam44, rkfish, WTCG, MrEureka, and others I know I’m forgetting. It was also great to meet some for the first time – ThePennyLady, MFH, blu66vette, coinkid855, JonMN34 and GregL. I got a chuckle from the West Coasters mentioning how inexpensive it was to eat in Pittsburgh.
Were there great coins? Oh yeah. A 1795 small eagle $5 in 64, a 1797 large eagle $10 in 62, an 1807 $5 in 65, three PR67 Saints, a 1861 3CS with beautiful toning in MS68, and many others. MFH had a mind-blowing Barber quarter that was a brockage and diecap – the only one for the type. Never saw anything like it before, doubtful I’ll ever see it again. Blu66vette had some wonderful DMPLs also.
Were there fake coins? Yes! Tootawl was packing a mostly-filled Dansco 7070, where every coin was a counterfeit or reproduction he had (knowingly) acquired over the years. I believed the unc-ish Lincoln cent was real, but we could not come to a consensus. Who makes a counterfeit common date wheat cent, anyway? That was a very cool type set. Tootawl definitely knows, as HRH would say, how to have fun with his coins. He also had a raggedy piece of something that was in a PCGS currency holder, which tootawl said is the only piece of currency they have ever graded a 1. The holder listed the note’s full serial number, but I could only pick out two digits on the note itself. They must have used an scanning electron microscope to figure it out. I wish I had a picture of it so you could see how amazingly poor this note was.
JonMN34 was at the table next to ours and I was very impressed with his knowledge of currency. Told me about how rare the 1950B $5 FRN D-A block is (very short print run of only 640,000), but has cherried two of them from dealers who had them as generic 1950B notes.
Q: Who is impossible to talk to at a show, because there is ALWAYS, ALWAYS someone at his table, even at a show that others said was slow?
A: John Kraljevich.
I could see his table from ours, and for two days waited for an opportunity to walk over to just say hi and chat for a couple minutes when he had a break in the action. Never happened! I finally (and rudely, I’m ashamed to say) interrupted a conversation he was having so I could quickly say hello and shake hands. I apologize, John. Does this man never need to visit a restroom?
Sold some Morgans to Larry Shepherd. Got kissed on the forehead by Andy Skrabalak who is just a joy to talk with. Saw board member vam44 evaluate some coins in old holders and predict which would upgrade – he was 12 for 15, and in all different series, too. What a great eye.
The forum member dinner on Friday was a lot of fun. We had golddustin and his wife, PTVETTER and his wife, blu66vette, GregL, Mar327, JonMN34, and RickMilauskas and his co-worker. It was 3 hours of great conversation, beer, food and beer. I respect GregL for coming out not knowing what kind of reception an ANA Governor would get and I hope he’d agree it was fine.
Met a contributor to the Red Book and talked about how new varieties get added. I asked if people campaign for it and in his opinion that really doesn’t work. If the variety starts trading in the market on its own merits, that can get it on the radar for possible inclusion.
Customer anecdotes:
- A woman asks if I could tell her what her coin was worth, I said I would certainly try. She’s clutching a Peace dollar in her hand, not in any type of holder. It was a 1928, in VG. How often does someone with one single coin, not in any type of holder, end up having the key to the series?
- Had two different customers want to talk about submitting proof sets from the 1950’s for slabbing. Customer 1 was told by another dealer that since he had removed the sets from the original packaging (they were now in Dansco albums) the coins had no collector value. So he asked if slabbing them would help recover the lost value. The customer was unfamiliar with the concept of cameo proofs as well. Customer 2 thought slabbing the proof sets would mean an instant payday since the person had seen so many expensive slabbed proof singles at the show. The thing that struck me was that both customers felt that since they had bought proof coins in original packaging, and had stored them carefully for many years, there was no doubt they would all grade very high.
- Three customers mentioned they could not find mid- to late-1880’s S-mint Morgans. That seemed odd.
- PTVETTER pointed out to me a couple who was at a nearby table going through a junkbox. The table was being tended by the dealer’s teenage son. Pat recognized them as a couple who had been removed from another show for theft, and wanted me to know what they looked like in case they came to our table. The dealer at the table right next to that one was watching the couple pretty intensely also. I turned around to do something, and next thing I saw was security escorting the couple out. I guess the couple was stealing from the junkbox, assuming they could get away with it since the boy was there and not the dealer himself. But obviously show security was on top of it immediately. Also, I heard another guy had been taken out in handcuffs the day before but I didn’t get the whole story on that one.
I know some said it was a terrible show. But I know two dealers who said it was the best show they had ever had sales-wise. It may not have been a nuclear white-hot show for five- and six-figure coins, but it certainly was not an unmitigated disaster for everyone. One dealer said Saturday was great, outdoing the previous two days combined when typically the last day of a show is a down day. I suppose it depends on what material you have. I don’t accept that simply because a show doesn’t kick butt for certain material it means it was a flop across the board.
It was unfortunate that I missed an opportunity to meet some forum members who I learned were there, but I did see quite a few – Papabear, njcoincrank, quarterjack, RickMilauskas, tootawl, golddustin, raybob15239, pistareen, vam44, rkfish, WTCG, MrEureka, and others I know I’m forgetting. It was also great to meet some for the first time – ThePennyLady, MFH, blu66vette, coinkid855, JonMN34 and GregL. I got a chuckle from the West Coasters mentioning how inexpensive it was to eat in Pittsburgh.
Were there great coins? Oh yeah. A 1795 small eagle $5 in 64, a 1797 large eagle $10 in 62, an 1807 $5 in 65, three PR67 Saints, a 1861 3CS with beautiful toning in MS68, and many others. MFH had a mind-blowing Barber quarter that was a brockage and diecap – the only one for the type. Never saw anything like it before, doubtful I’ll ever see it again. Blu66vette had some wonderful DMPLs also.
Were there fake coins? Yes! Tootawl was packing a mostly-filled Dansco 7070, where every coin was a counterfeit or reproduction he had (knowingly) acquired over the years. I believed the unc-ish Lincoln cent was real, but we could not come to a consensus. Who makes a counterfeit common date wheat cent, anyway? That was a very cool type set. Tootawl definitely knows, as HRH would say, how to have fun with his coins. He also had a raggedy piece of something that was in a PCGS currency holder, which tootawl said is the only piece of currency they have ever graded a 1. The holder listed the note’s full serial number, but I could only pick out two digits on the note itself. They must have used an scanning electron microscope to figure it out. I wish I had a picture of it so you could see how amazingly poor this note was.
JonMN34 was at the table next to ours and I was very impressed with his knowledge of currency. Told me about how rare the 1950B $5 FRN D-A block is (very short print run of only 640,000), but has cherried two of them from dealers who had them as generic 1950B notes.
Q: Who is impossible to talk to at a show, because there is ALWAYS, ALWAYS someone at his table, even at a show that others said was slow?
A: John Kraljevich.
I could see his table from ours, and for two days waited for an opportunity to walk over to just say hi and chat for a couple minutes when he had a break in the action. Never happened! I finally (and rudely, I’m ashamed to say) interrupted a conversation he was having so I could quickly say hello and shake hands. I apologize, John. Does this man never need to visit a restroom?
Sold some Morgans to Larry Shepherd. Got kissed on the forehead by Andy Skrabalak who is just a joy to talk with. Saw board member vam44 evaluate some coins in old holders and predict which would upgrade – he was 12 for 15, and in all different series, too. What a great eye.
The forum member dinner on Friday was a lot of fun. We had golddustin and his wife, PTVETTER and his wife, blu66vette, GregL, Mar327, JonMN34, and RickMilauskas and his co-worker. It was 3 hours of great conversation, beer, food and beer. I respect GregL for coming out not knowing what kind of reception an ANA Governor would get and I hope he’d agree it was fine.
Met a contributor to the Red Book and talked about how new varieties get added. I asked if people campaign for it and in his opinion that really doesn’t work. If the variety starts trading in the market on its own merits, that can get it on the radar for possible inclusion.
Customer anecdotes:
- A woman asks if I could tell her what her coin was worth, I said I would certainly try. She’s clutching a Peace dollar in her hand, not in any type of holder. It was a 1928, in VG. How often does someone with one single coin, not in any type of holder, end up having the key to the series?
- Had two different customers want to talk about submitting proof sets from the 1950’s for slabbing. Customer 1 was told by another dealer that since he had removed the sets from the original packaging (they were now in Dansco albums) the coins had no collector value. So he asked if slabbing them would help recover the lost value. The customer was unfamiliar with the concept of cameo proofs as well. Customer 2 thought slabbing the proof sets would mean an instant payday since the person had seen so many expensive slabbed proof singles at the show. The thing that struck me was that both customers felt that since they had bought proof coins in original packaging, and had stored them carefully for many years, there was no doubt they would all grade very high.
- Three customers mentioned they could not find mid- to late-1880’s S-mint Morgans. That seemed odd.
- PTVETTER pointed out to me a couple who was at a nearby table going through a junkbox. The table was being tended by the dealer’s teenage son. Pat recognized them as a couple who had been removed from another show for theft, and wanted me to know what they looked like in case they came to our table. The dealer at the table right next to that one was watching the couple pretty intensely also. I turned around to do something, and next thing I saw was security escorting the couple out. I guess the couple was stealing from the junkbox, assuming they could get away with it since the boy was there and not the dealer himself. But obviously show security was on top of it immediately. Also, I heard another guy had been taken out in handcuffs the day before but I didn’t get the whole story on that one.
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.
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Sounds like it was fun.
I finally got to eat at Primanti Brothers! On the suggestion of the waiter/bar tender. I had the capicola & cheese sammich (it's an itailian meat). I was told it came with fries and cole slaw. When I got the sammich, I didn't expect the fries and slaw to be ON the sammich! IT was a big BIG sammich! No where else in Pittsburgh can you get a vodka & crandberry for $3.75.
I would publically thank Kranky for organizing the dinner Friday night at the Church Brew Works. For those who weren't there, you missed a reall good time! Got to hang out with some old friends and meet a few new ones. If you have never been to the Church Brew Works, it is an old church that was changed into a restraunt. They brew beer where the alter use to be! Here are a few photos of the place. Unfortunatley, no one thought of taking a photo of the group. Probably in fear of breaking a camera or 2!
Thanks for the report, brother. I wish I could have made the dinner.
Talk about food of the Gods (i.e. beer)!
Great report!
I'm glad you stopped by -- you are always welcome to come hang out, no matter who is chewing on my ear!
Betts medals, colonial coins, US Mint medals, foreign coins found in early America, and other numismatic Americana
Mike