What ever happened to pre-show Coin Drops? (And, other things you miss about todays Coin Shows.)
braddick
Posts: 24,820 ✭✭✭✭✭
I remember not too long ago it was common practice for a show promoter to drop key day Lincolns into circulation and then advertise buy prices for the lucky finders as a way of promoting larger coin shows. Long Beach was famous for this along with many others.
I see that tradition is lost and it got me to thinking of the other aspects of coins shows gone by that I miss.
For example, you couldn't be walking around too long before you heard the familiar sound of a larger silver coin hitting the cement bourse floor and all heads in the immediate vicinity looking in that general area of the dropped and now rolling coin. Now with so many coins slabbed that sound is heard less and less, if at all.
What are the things you've noticed missing now in our current coin show environment?
(Cheap parking being another!)
I see that tradition is lost and it got me to thinking of the other aspects of coins shows gone by that I miss.
For example, you couldn't be walking around too long before you heard the familiar sound of a larger silver coin hitting the cement bourse floor and all heads in the immediate vicinity looking in that general area of the dropped and now rolling coin. Now with so many coins slabbed that sound is heard less and less, if at all.
What are the things you've noticed missing now in our current coin show environment?
(Cheap parking being another!)
peacockcoins
0
Comments
So even if there are a lot of 1909-SVDB Lincoln cents out there, losing one every now and then is a loss to numismatics forever.
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.
<< <i>Coin drops were found to be a good way for rare coins to be lost forever, as very few of them ever turned up after the "drop".
So even if there are a lot of 1909-SVDB Lincoln cents out there, losing one every now and then is a loss to numismatics forever. >>
Considering how many cents I pick up in parking lots or see being tossed in "leave a penny" trays in stores, I always used to cringe at the thought of an S-VDB (or similar) being dropped back into circulation.
<< <i>What ever happened to pre-show Coin Drops? >>
Is that what you put in your eyes, to avoid bedazzlement?
<< <i>
For example, you couldn't be walking around too long before you heard the familiar sound of a larger silver coin hitting the cement bourse floor and all heads in the immediate vicinity looking in that general area of the dropped and now rolling coin. Now with so many coins slabbed that sound is heard less and less, if at all.
What are the things you've noticed missing now in our current coin show environment?
(Cheap parking being another!) >>
are you trying to describe another benefit of slabs?
<< <i>The coin drop is only as successful as the amount of free media coverage you can get out of it. Maybe it's just not a novel idea anymore? >>
Yeah, maybe, but each year the Salvation Army stages "someone" dropping a gold coin into one of their pots and it gets media attention each and every time.
peacockcoins
<< <i>
<< <i>The coin drop is only as successful as the amount of free media coverage you can get out of it. Maybe it's just not a novel idea anymore? >>
Yeah, maybe, but each year the Salvation Army stages "someone" dropping a gold coin into one of their pots and it gets media attention each and every time. >>
They don't stage it. Back in the mid-90s, the SA in Chicago liquidated their PM take for a few years through someone I know that used to do live auctions in the area. There would be plenty more than a staged coin or two. Plenty of assorted gold, usually fractional. Lots of silver and a few plats. Mind you, this was when gold was around $300/oz, so dropping a 1/4 oz AGE or something like a sovereign or rooster in the pot wasn't as significant a sum as it is today. One year, someone dropped a fake late 18th century 8 escudos in the pot.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Since it has caught on in popularity and is guaranteed to draw attention to the Salvation Army's plight, sure they do. Not all, but some.
peacockcoins
<< <i>
<< <i>The coin drop is only as successful as the amount of free media coverage you can get out of it. Maybe it's just not a novel idea anymore? >>
Yeah, maybe, but each year the Salvation Army stages "someone" dropping a gold coin into one of their pots and it gets media attention each and every time. >>
I think these are legit. IIRC, Harlan Berk (downtown Chicago) handled a number of these pieces.
This was early '60s. My brother found one taped to the inside lid of a washing machine.
One of my fond memories that is as gone as the '63 Chevy.
Mike
W.C. Fields
Since the late 1970s I've helped promote coin shows from New York to California and I used to be a proponent of "coin drops." To kick off the 1997 ANA convention in New York City, then US Treasurer Mary Ellen Withrow purchased a pretzel from a Times Square pushcart vendor with a dollars' worth of change and one of the coins was a 1909-S V.D.B. Lincoln cent donated by Littleton Coin Co. (It came from a hoard of coins culled from NYC area pocket change by a former transit system worker.) The PR stunt attracted camera crews from every New York area TV station and got subsequent stories in the daily papers.
But the following year while planning publicity for another show elsewhere, it occured to me a coin drop has no real motivation connected to it, other than perhaps nudging people to look at their pocket change for the next few days. Despite the publicity you can get by deliberately putting a valuable coin into circulation, it does absolutely nothing to convince Joe and Mary Sixpack to get off the couch and actually go to the coin show.
So, in my opinion, the local, mainstream news media publicity for a coin show should be focused on the benefits someone will get by actually attending the event, for example seeing exhibits of historic, interesting, valuable coins; getting their own old coins and currency appraised; activities for young collectors; educational seminars; door prizes, if any; and of course, actually, buying and selling.
That said, about a half dozen years ago I worked with Scott Travers on a Times Square coin drop to promote National Coin Week and the latest edition of one of his books. Getting a story in the New York Times and on TV helped raise awareness of coin collecting in general, as well as Scott's book, and that was the goal of that particular PR stunt. Here's a photo of TV camera crews capturing Scott in Times Square buying a bottle of water with change that also included a 1909-S V.D.B. cent. Photo
<< <i>I see that tradition is lost and it got me to thinking of the other aspects of coins shows gone by that I miss. >>
a motto i strive to live by:
if you want to see change, be the change: everything is connected
.
There are a limited number of resultant scenarios ranging from hilarious to not so pretty.
<< <i>I regularly drop (non-precious metal, obvious in-hand) counterfeit Maple Leaf's on the floor near or just under the front table drapes at the few shows I attend each year and watch from about 30 feet away.
>>
That is just evil. I hope you only do it to the dealers that deserve it
<< <i>
<< <i>I regularly drop (non-precious metal, obvious in-hand) counterfeit Maple Leaf's on the floor near or just under the front table drapes at the few shows I attend each year and watch from about 30 feet away.
>>
That is just evil. I hope you only do it to the dealers that deserve it
RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'
CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
The coin was either a mercury dime or an indian penney, one year I had my ex-wife and mother in law come with so I wound up with 3 merc's instead of one.
<< <i>
<< <i>I regularly drop (non-precious metal, obvious in-hand) counterfeit Maple Leaf's on the floor near or just under the front table drapes at the few shows I attend each year and watch from about 30 feet away.
>>
That is just evil. I hope you only do it to the dealers that deserve it
The round metal objects are farther away from the dealers and closer to the customers, though occasionally you're OTM. A hoot either way
"Seu cabra da peste,
"Sou Mangueira......."