Nap's NYINC
Nap
Posts: 1,755 ✭✭✭✭✭
Had to work Thursday so did not make it for the preview. I managed to attend Friday and Saturday. I live outside NYC and have a dog so I didn't stay in the city. Instead I (probably foolishly) drove in both days. Parking was a challenge, especially yesterday with the funeral for the late NYPD officer McDonald. Today it wasn't so fun to drive home in the snow.
I collect a somewhat obscure subset of Anglo-Saxon coins from a petty kingdom called Northumbria. It is rare to find what I collect at any show. So I don't really look for major acquisitions, rather I see the show as a chance to get to talk coins in person, and see some nice things up close. I was looking for two things at the show:
1) A Hadrian denarius from the "travel series". My wife has expressed an interest in putting together a set of these. Whenever I can detect a smidgen of interest I have to run with it, as she is generally not a coin person, but she does like history.
2) A Seljuk dirham of Kaykhusraw II. I don't actively collect these coins but I appreciate the nice design of this particular coin, featuring a lion and sun. They are not rare and not expensive, which is an extra perk.
On Friday I got to the show about mid-day. I met harasha and then EVillageProwler. He and I discussed a gold Anglo-Saxon coin, called a "thrymsa", a type neither of us own. More on that later. I did find a selection of Anglo-Saxon coins, but nothing essential for my collection and most stuff strongly priced for retail. Of the two coins I was seeking, I struck out on #2. No examples of the dirham that I could find. One dealer said they believed they had some back at the office, and will hopefully be able to get me one after the show. It's not a rare coin and I'm sure I can find one without too much trouble. For #1, the Hadrian denarius, I found a dealer from California who had a nice set of the travel series. Mostly EF and attractively toned. The set was an obvious labor of love by a discerning collector. I did consider buying one of them, but the set was on consignment and he only wanted to sell it whole. Oh well, I could not afford to buy a whole set of them now, plus that takes away from the fun of the hunt. Despite the popularity of the coin, and their relative availability, there were not many at the show. I did finally find one- Hadrian's travel to Italy (where he started his travels)- in a dealer's case, however, several people were going through every last flip in the dealer's inventory, wouldn't give me a chance to get in to take a look. Literally waited an hour partly because I try to be polite and partly because the dealer was that engaged. Patience paid off and I was able to pick up my wife's first coin to her set. Finally, I picked up an attractive 14th century French feudal coin. I know nearly nothing about these issues, and I find Frankish and French coins relatively hard to get into as there are not many English language references, but I do appreciate French "feodales" as historically interesting, affordable medieval coins.
EVP showed me his new sceattas, which predictably were exceptional, and I shared with him some of the past year's acquisition. Zohar showed me 2- and 3- taler coins; I'd never seen them up close and was quite impressed with their size. Zohar, of course, also has a great eye for lovely coins and these were no exceptions. I briefly met TwoKopecki but sadly didn't get to chat much. Other board friends I met up with include superpsychmd, EastonCollection, and Analyst. Also got to see Scott Travers and also met Barry Murphy who now works at NGC. Both are terrific coin gurus. My wife joined me in the city and we had a nice dinner at a Turkish restaurant. The drive home was fairly painless, but I was quite tired.
Saturday I came back to the show, this time with the wife and daughter in tow. My daughter is a few months shy of two years old. She takes an interest in coins, in the sense that she likes to grab them out of my hands and place them in her pocket. She also likes to eat them, especially if they are made of chocolate (but even if they aren't). I talked with EVP some more about gold Anglo-Saxon thrymsas, and decided to read about them a little more. This, naturally, led to me finding a debased pale gold thrymsa for sale on an English dealer's website. Debased coins have less gold than the early pieces, and have a pale golden hue. Eventually (over a few decades) the coins became so debased that they look silver. The debased coins are less rare (and valuable) than the high-percentage gold ones, but more rare and desirable than the silver ones. I thought the price was reasonable, and EVP did as well (though I'm sure the coin is not quite up to his most discerning standards), so I made my biggest "show" purchase from a vendor about 3500 miles away. I'll post a pic when I receive the coin.
I had a missed connection with a British researcher who is studying Anglo-Saxon, hopefully will be able to chat with him some other time. Today however, was the Northumbrian Numismatic Nerdiness. I met up with two other American collectors of Northumbrian coinage and we went to lunch. Two of us brought our (long-suffering) wives. Between the three of us, we probably own a good percentage of the Northumbrian coins in private hands, certainly a good chunk of the coins outside of the UK; there was plenty to talk about. Had a nice lunch at a Mexican restaurant, though felt a little bad for the women who didn't share our enthusiasm for these coins. At this point it had started to snow, and the drive home was a whole lot of no fun. But I was soaring high on "cointhusiasm" and that made it not so bad.
Everyone was a little nostalgic for the Waldorf-Astoria, which will no longer be hosting the convention after this year. The dealers I spoke with seemed to be fairly busy, and there was a decent amount of foot traffic, especially Friday. Hopefully those selling had a good show.
Sorry for being a little long-winded. Best part of the show experience was all the great people, hope to see you all at future events.
Comments
True story...
Last year was first time I met Nap. @Zohar was with us when we got nerdy about our Anglo-Saxon stuff. Then, he stayed politely for about 5 minutes before leaving us.
This show, Friday, Zohar was with me again when I met up with Nap and took off after maybe 30 second of our getting nerdy.
Funny guy that Zohar. He has interest in many areas of world coins, but just not the Anglo-Saxon stuff. It's almost like he's trying to avoid getting the Spanish Flu of 1919!
LOL!
How does one get a hater to stop hating?
I can be reached at evillageprowler@gmail.com
You noticed the "Houdini" act and I thought it was subtle.... honestly, its not the coins, its the depth of discussion that you guys have which truly sounds like a different language to me. No offense please.
Actually, Nap did not notice your running away until I said something. He was just talking away about a nuanced matter and I remarked that you just left quicker than last year. He smirked, and continued with what he was saying.
Just FYI - you can get pretty nuanced with your Habsburg stuff too.
How does one get a hater to stop hating?
I can be reached at evillageprowler@gmail.com
I once asked my aunt about the Spanish Flu of 1918 (through 1920). One of the rare times I had enough sense to ask the prior generation about their historical events. She was born in 1910, so what she remembered was that everyone went around in face masks. Of course, wearing face masks at the NYINC might not go over too well.
DPOTD
Thanks for the writeup, lucky your wife has just a faint interest in putting together a set of something.
Hadrian travel series coins are fairly easy to get, but similar to the 12 caesars, everyone wants to build the set. Even I want too but can't justify the cost.
You can find some on ebay now and then and not too expensive.