Sarasota Coin Show Report

keyman64

I arrived at my first show since Summer FUN around 9:50 AM and waited patiently for the doors to open. There were about 20 people waiting at the time. The room was mostly full and is always a nice event. I was on the hunt for varieties and was able to search the entire place for Mercury Dime Varieties in about a time span of two hours. I saw one unattributed CPG Mercury Dime Variety in NGC MS65FB. Sadly it was not one I needed and it also happened to be the most common of all of the varieties, the 1944-D/D FS-501. My best example of that variety is PCGS MS67FB.

I enjoyed looking over the inventory of Sarasota Rare Coin. They always seem to have good to fair prices, friendly folks and always a must stop table. They attend Summer and Winter FUN in case you ever go to those shows. They have nice high grade stuff with lots of pretty stickers.

I did look at a couple of very nice Mercs that were colorfully toned in MS68FB. I saw another super-toner in MS67 but it was priced more than 10x full retail. I would have bought it for a small premium as it was a very nice coin but toners are clearly not my game.

I looked at many other pretty things including a 1794 Head of 1794 Large Cent in PCGS MS66BN. It was priced at a mere $175,000. I would have bought it but I thought I might be eating lunch out, away from home, and that would have pushed me about $5 over budget for the day so I left it for some other lucky numismatist.

After I finished searching the room, MFH arrived. I hung out with him while he did some business and then we drove about a six tenths of a mile away, parked and had a very nice walk to a cafe. It was a beautiful day, probably just over 80 degrees with just a few white puffy clouds in the sky. The food (nice large burgers) was good and conversation better. I drove back back to the convention center and dropped him off so that he could do hunting of his own and I could return to my stomping grounds.

I picked my kids up and then we drove home to the beach, played on the beach, swam a little and checked out the ever so slight partial lunar eclipse.

It was a good day.

Walkerguy21D

Coin show, good burgers and conversation with Mike, then time spent with kids at the beach.....pretty much an all-round perfect day!

keyman64

<< <i>Coin show, good burgers and conversation with Mike, then time spent with kids at the beach.....pretty much an all-round perfect day! >>

Yes, indeed.

MFH

Greg - It was a really good day all around - I also met up with a few other friends after you dropped me off after lunch.

Dave Wollinka - Brian Miller and CoinKid855 - we chatted awhile - then I ran into old friends, Kathleen and Ben King of
American Rare Coins and Collectibles from Naples - who also happen to have been clients of mine, when I was with Robb & Stucky.

I went back to Sarasota Rare Coins and chatted with Ben Todd - as he had a really pristine V Nickel that a friend has
been searching for - and as its a key date - and an MS 65 with a Green Bean - it wasn't inexpensive - but I thought
priced very competitively. Ben also had a great Barber Quarter which I now kick myself in not buying - but I already had
that date in a PCGS 58 holder [ his was also a 58 PCGS ] and the only difference was mine had a Green Bean and his didn't ...
I left the show with no purchases - and some regret.

The weather was warm - no humidity - and the two hour drive down the highway with the top down listening to tunes
made the trip fly by.

ricko

Good report....thanks... Cheers, RickO

GotTheBug

I attended the show on both Saturday and Sunday. Attendance was moderate on Saturday and a dealer started packing up at 1:00 PM about the time I was leaving. I arrived on Sunday right at the opening and I would venture to say that 1/3 of the dealers had packed up and left. Most of the dealers that I spoke with in depth said that the show was "OK" but it was pretty apparent that things were slow.

From a coin standpoint there seemed to be a pretty good selection for a small show, including some really nice Canadian pieces, but the Canadian material was severely overpriced so I left it alone. I picked up a nice raw mint state 1930-S dime with full split bands for the Dansco but that was about it. There were a couple of tempting pieces including a raw 1822 Capped Bust dime in AG. As a matter of fact I went back on Sunday expressly for the purpose of taking another look at it and I probably would have pulled the trigger, but the dealer had packed up an left. There also was an MS63 1822 Bust dime in an NGC holder but at $15K or something like that it wasn't for me.

Generally speaking the Sarasota Municipal Auditorium is a really good venue for a small show and the weather was perfect for all three days. I also discovered that one of the high ranking officials of the Confederate States of America made good his escape to England in April of 1865 just a stone's throw from the venue.

Speaking of high-ranking, Leo Frese, formerly of Heritage was there as one of the dealers and he and I had a nice chat about Heritage and other coin matters. He also had a really stunning 1865 Liberty Seated half graded MS66 by PCGS which I got to look at up close. One of these days I've got to win the lottery....