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CSNS Post Thursday 4/25/13
nicholasz219
Posts: 1,386 ✭✭✭
Hello All! Just thought I would share my thoughts with you guys after attending my SECOND coin show in a week after not attending a show for twenty years.
I drove up for the opening of the Central States Numismatic Society Coin Show in Schaumburg, IL on Thursday morning to see what was left after the carnage of the "professional preview" period the day prior and that morning. I walked in and renewed my ANA membership first thing at the booth with John and Nancy Wilson. They are some great people and it was nice to meet people that knew some of the old timers that I knew while growing up. They gave me lots of advice about helping my daughter develop her collecting and knowledge. (HOW COULD I FORGET ABOUT THE SUMMER ROMAN COIN PROJECT???????)
Then I started to walk the bourse floor. The floor seemed much busier than CICF, especially for being early on in the day. But then again it was the first day of the show. It was a large and full bourse with 250 tables, I think. The problem though, was that 97 percent of the dealers specialized in lightside stuff. At least there were some paper money vendors like Denly's of Boston which saved me from death by boredom as I looked at each table for errant foreign or ancient coins. There were actually ancient coins in the cases of a lot of dealers, but it was slab-mania everywhere. Just glancing at the prices of a lot of the US stuff gave me heart palpitations. The ancient slabbed stuff wasn't much better. Anything under $500 was not happening often in slabbed ancients.
As it turned out there wasn't a whole lot of foreign that I was interested in either. It is funny though that tables that had their foreign books and boxes easily accessible always had three or four people going through the books looking to fill dates. Actually there were some dealers that I probably did not get to look through their stuff because I didn't have the longest amount of time to spend and I made judgment calls based on what I could see over the shoulders of others.
I know a lot of the business of shows is dealer to dealer, and that is why a lot of higher grade and investment pieces are out there so dealers can buy for known customers back home. Also larger dollar stuff in the main cases pays the bills of the show when it moves. Its unfortunate though because a lot of collectors who would spend a few hundred dollars on a coin or a few coins just start walking past those sort of cases. I know that I did. Also some dealers should just hire pretty faces (male and female) to work the counter and just be polite and somewhat engaging with the customers. Some dealers didn't even acknowledge my presence with a smile much less make conversation. I respect the knowledge of the dealers who have earned it, but it's easy to lose sight of the customer sometimes. And buying stuff from the computer is mostly cheaper and just as impersonal. Just some food for thought.
The sad part was that most of the US that I thought was attractive was so far out of my price range that I couldn't have stretched to buy a piece if I wanted too. Even just to have a nice type piece like a Barber or something in a MS condition that I have always wanted. So I ignored everything, even non slabbed stuff because when factoring my short day, I just didn't have time. There were basically two dealers of ancients worth spending any time with and Pegasi Numismatics just carried too much high end stuff. When I asked to see the ancients behind the counter and the cheapest coin in the first box was $300, I figured it wasn't the place for me.
On the flip side, I ended up spending a lot of time with Jonathan Kern. I have never met John before but I had always admired his well-researched and well written ads in Coin World. Always selling eclectic ancient and world stuff as well. His ancients in his cases were super fancy and I asked him if he had boxes in the back I could sort through. He did and his "junk" boxes made me laugh. One of the first coins I found was a denarius of Julius Caesar that I set aside for a price for giggles. As it turned out though, coins that would be at the very top of my collection residing in his "eh, I'll get to it later" box aside, he had some really nice and varied pieces. I pulled out about 15 pieces for updated prices and he gave me very respectable prices on all of them. He is very knowledgable and did make for nice if stilted conversation at times, but then again some guy was pestering him endlessly about some coin that was $900. By the third time the guy came back I was ready to buy the coin for him.
All in all, I was able to buy an 1806 Great Britain George III large penny for my daughter for $2! in G, which is an attractive coin and a nice add to her growing collection and five ancients. And I only went over budget by $40. (Which sounds better than the 20% over budget it was.)
From John Kern I bought:
Maxentius, Sear 3781, AE Follis, IMP C MAXENTIVS P F AVG, laureate head right, CONSERV URB SVAE, Roma seated left in tetrastyle temple presenting globe to Maxentius, captive sitting between; wolf and twins in pediment, victories in acroteria, AQP in ex.
Julia Domna AR Denarius, Sear 6606 IULIA AUGUSTA, bare head right, SAECVLI FELICITAS, Isis holding Horus, polos on head, stepping out of ship (super neat coin and design!)
Caracalla AR Denarius, Sear 6862 ANTONIVS PIVS AVG laureate head right, PONTIF TRP X COS II Mars advancing right
Julia Mamaea AR Denarius, Sear 8212 IVLIA MAMAEA AVG, bare head right, IUNO CONSERVATRIX, Juno standing facing left, pea**ck below left hand.
Gordian III AR Denarius, Sear 8606, IMP GORDIANVS PIVS I I I AVG, FELICITAS TEMPORVM
I feel like after checking VCoins and Ebay that I got some pretty reasonable prices for some strong XF coins. I will post some pictures later this week.
Did anyone else go to CSNS? I hope so and I hope to hear about your adventures!
I drove up for the opening of the Central States Numismatic Society Coin Show in Schaumburg, IL on Thursday morning to see what was left after the carnage of the "professional preview" period the day prior and that morning. I walked in and renewed my ANA membership first thing at the booth with John and Nancy Wilson. They are some great people and it was nice to meet people that knew some of the old timers that I knew while growing up. They gave me lots of advice about helping my daughter develop her collecting and knowledge. (HOW COULD I FORGET ABOUT THE SUMMER ROMAN COIN PROJECT???????)
Then I started to walk the bourse floor. The floor seemed much busier than CICF, especially for being early on in the day. But then again it was the first day of the show. It was a large and full bourse with 250 tables, I think. The problem though, was that 97 percent of the dealers specialized in lightside stuff. At least there were some paper money vendors like Denly's of Boston which saved me from death by boredom as I looked at each table for errant foreign or ancient coins. There were actually ancient coins in the cases of a lot of dealers, but it was slab-mania everywhere. Just glancing at the prices of a lot of the US stuff gave me heart palpitations. The ancient slabbed stuff wasn't much better. Anything under $500 was not happening often in slabbed ancients.
As it turned out there wasn't a whole lot of foreign that I was interested in either. It is funny though that tables that had their foreign books and boxes easily accessible always had three or four people going through the books looking to fill dates. Actually there were some dealers that I probably did not get to look through their stuff because I didn't have the longest amount of time to spend and I made judgment calls based on what I could see over the shoulders of others.
I know a lot of the business of shows is dealer to dealer, and that is why a lot of higher grade and investment pieces are out there so dealers can buy for known customers back home. Also larger dollar stuff in the main cases pays the bills of the show when it moves. Its unfortunate though because a lot of collectors who would spend a few hundred dollars on a coin or a few coins just start walking past those sort of cases. I know that I did. Also some dealers should just hire pretty faces (male and female) to work the counter and just be polite and somewhat engaging with the customers. Some dealers didn't even acknowledge my presence with a smile much less make conversation. I respect the knowledge of the dealers who have earned it, but it's easy to lose sight of the customer sometimes. And buying stuff from the computer is mostly cheaper and just as impersonal. Just some food for thought.
The sad part was that most of the US that I thought was attractive was so far out of my price range that I couldn't have stretched to buy a piece if I wanted too. Even just to have a nice type piece like a Barber or something in a MS condition that I have always wanted. So I ignored everything, even non slabbed stuff because when factoring my short day, I just didn't have time. There were basically two dealers of ancients worth spending any time with and Pegasi Numismatics just carried too much high end stuff. When I asked to see the ancients behind the counter and the cheapest coin in the first box was $300, I figured it wasn't the place for me.
On the flip side, I ended up spending a lot of time with Jonathan Kern. I have never met John before but I had always admired his well-researched and well written ads in Coin World. Always selling eclectic ancient and world stuff as well. His ancients in his cases were super fancy and I asked him if he had boxes in the back I could sort through. He did and his "junk" boxes made me laugh. One of the first coins I found was a denarius of Julius Caesar that I set aside for a price for giggles. As it turned out though, coins that would be at the very top of my collection residing in his "eh, I'll get to it later" box aside, he had some really nice and varied pieces. I pulled out about 15 pieces for updated prices and he gave me very respectable prices on all of them. He is very knowledgable and did make for nice if stilted conversation at times, but then again some guy was pestering him endlessly about some coin that was $900. By the third time the guy came back I was ready to buy the coin for him.
All in all, I was able to buy an 1806 Great Britain George III large penny for my daughter for $2! in G, which is an attractive coin and a nice add to her growing collection and five ancients. And I only went over budget by $40. (Which sounds better than the 20% over budget it was.)
From John Kern I bought:
Maxentius, Sear 3781, AE Follis, IMP C MAXENTIVS P F AVG, laureate head right, CONSERV URB SVAE, Roma seated left in tetrastyle temple presenting globe to Maxentius, captive sitting between; wolf and twins in pediment, victories in acroteria, AQP in ex.
Julia Domna AR Denarius, Sear 6606 IULIA AUGUSTA, bare head right, SAECVLI FELICITAS, Isis holding Horus, polos on head, stepping out of ship (super neat coin and design!)
Caracalla AR Denarius, Sear 6862 ANTONIVS PIVS AVG laureate head right, PONTIF TRP X COS II Mars advancing right
Julia Mamaea AR Denarius, Sear 8212 IVLIA MAMAEA AVG, bare head right, IUNO CONSERVATRIX, Juno standing facing left, pea**ck below left hand.
Gordian III AR Denarius, Sear 8606, IMP GORDIANVS PIVS I I I AVG, FELICITAS TEMPORVM
I feel like after checking VCoins and Ebay that I got some pretty reasonable prices for some strong XF coins. I will post some pictures later this week.
Did anyone else go to CSNS? I hope so and I hope to hear about your adventures!
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Comments
From the ones you bought they look to be the common types in the world of ancients but if they are in near/EF condition, do share. I enjoy seeing even the common stuff.
<< <i>Bronzemat: yeah most of the stuff I buy is common but I am happy with it. I am excited to fill spots in my emperor set as well as build out collections of families like the Severan dynasty. Hopefully I can find my camera and get some decent photos up here in the next few days. >>
Alot of my stuff is common too. I got no problems with it. I am a budget collector anyways
When it comes to ancients I can live with coins with scratches, some off centering, porous and some other stuff. I dont like broken or holed ancients.
I dont blame you on the legends but some times of rome there is nothing but off legend coins