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ANA Chicago, Saturday 8/17/13

Well, the ANA is officially over and just a few thoughts.

I would like to say that there are some great dealers out there who really were kind and considerate of my daughter and gf who attended the show with me. Dennis88, Kenn Hollister, Josh from Civitas, Musa Numismatics from CA, and a few others. My daughter (who is 10) won a proof set at the Coin Family Community (?) table that she was thrilled to get. Kenn Hollister gave her a "kid" break on some Chinese and Japanese cash coins which she was appreciative of especially. She did pretty good overall and found a lot of neat stuff that really expanded her idea of collecting. She completed her Passport from the World Mint Promenade (minus Austria, which ran out of coins) which she is taking to school today for a "show and tell" kind of presentation. She has autism, but is very high functioning and all of the dealers I saw her interact with were kind and considerate of the fact that she is still pretty little and can be shy when in such a large and strange environment.

Two dealers who shall remain nameless were a little less than welcoming to my gf, who was doing some leg work for me in checking out inventory questions I had while I worked one table since we were in a time crunch. Luckily she is reasonable and realized that these two just are idiots when it comes to talking to pretty girls and she just told me to not bother spending any money there.

I did have some luck in finding a few coins to add to the collection. It seemed that many of the same dealers that were at CICF were bringing much of the same inventory to ANA which was unfortunate. I couldn't afford more than $100 per coin and I was having a hard time spending my budgeted money, which is a first for me at a show. Luckily some reliable dealers helped me add to the ancient collection.

From Moneta, a Germanicus dupondius with a nice green patina and reverse almost worn flat but at a good price. Haven't attributed it fully yet.

From The Time Machine (St. Peters, MO) an AE18 from the Thessalian League 196-146BC with the head of Athena in a crested Corinthian helmet and a horse trotting on the reverse. I have always liked the coins featuring a helmeted Athena but the silver issues are so far out of my price range that I jumped on this relative bargain bronze piece. SG 2238

From Musa Numismatics I bought a AE19 from Julian II, 360-363 from the Alexandria Mint. RIC VII 92 LRBC 2854

My last ancient came from Josh at Civitas who sold me a very nice Victorinus 268-270AD. I haven't fully attributed this yet either but I really like the piece, especially after looking for a Victorinus for a few months. I also bought a farthing of Charles I from him which was my only addition to my English penny collection.

We didn't arrive until about 11:30am on Saturday because of some lovely traffic coming in on 90. Even then, many tables were cleared out, more so on the liteside than the dark. But still, its disappointing because that was the only day that I could bring my daughter because her crazy school district started school on the 13th. I had wanted to attend the meetings of the Chicago Coin Club and Ancient Coin Collectors Guild at 1 and 2 but had to skip both because there was no chance of me buying anything if I didn't start looking right away. I know I am not a collector that dealers will fight over, but I do like to spend money and I really hoped to have to blow through my budget ceiling at this show. I won't bother with dealers who will not say hello or give me a minute of their time. I definitely won't support people who can not stay through the end of a show on the one day that most of the public can attend. I know dealers have their financial reasons but I have mine too.

For the record, it seems that dealers who have boxes of medium grade/price stuff neatly separated and accessible to customers walking by seemed to be doing a lot of business. I am curious to hear from the dealers out there what table space is worth in terms of dedicating some space to boxes as well as display cases. Obviously every dealer would love to go to each show and sell all of their high end material at full price. Is that realistic? Or several collectors coming by and spending a few hundred at a time the more realistic scenario? Just curious.

The dealers above always have a great personality about them and take care of their customers. I'm glad to applaud them and give them my business. I was really disappointed to not see more tables full after I had been looking forward to this show for months.

I'd love to hear other people's experiences at the show as well.

Comments

  • pmacpmac Posts: 3,189 ✭✭✭
    Kind of off topic, but NPR had a program about high functioning autistic people whose special skills were tailored to job functions that many of us would consider too tedious that lead to poor performances. It was quite interesting. Also in this line of thought, my daughter, who is not autistic, heard of a professor(I think in Kansas) of large animal studies who was autistic and wrote a book about her walk in life to reach that position, again, very interesting. If coin collecting is one of your daughters skills, watch out, she'll be a force in the hobby.
    Paul
  • nicholasz219nicholasz219 Posts: 1,386 ✭✭✭
    The Professor is Temple Grandin. There is a very good HBO movie about her.

    My daughter is very high functioning, to the point that most people do not have any idea that she has autism at all. Thank you for the kind words.
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