FUN Show Day 2 and 3
Desert Moon
Posts: 6,492 ✭✭✭✭✭
Hi Folks,
I was hoping to post yesterday at this time but I managed to wake up with a splitting headache yesterday morning and had to go through my headache reduction protocol which includes not looking at computer screens (which can give me headaches). So by the time I had that in control, the day had started and I was off to the show.
So let me give you some highlights of the past 2 days here. I spent Thursday before the show lot viewing at Heritage with my focus on their gold. If I was still wanting to add pieces to my gold collection, there are probably a dozen coins they had that I would have bid on. Certainly these coins were all ones I would have bid on as well if I was going to build inventory for resale (which I am not). There are some very nice pre-civil war branch mint gold with good, mostly original looking (and indeed maybe not messed with) surfaces. There were several CC gold pieces that had the totally original Euro look - I suspect these are new arrivals from the old world. This is a look that Doug Winter told me about that he sees when fresh coins from Europe come in - they apparently still have bags and bags of gold coins sitting in vaults there, that were sent to Europe as payment back in the day before fiat money, and apparently there are folks that go over there regularly to buy and repatriate them. These get into the system and into collector hands over time. So some of the worn ones have a particular look. Here is what I am talking about:
Kind of a russety/golden patina with dark streaks. In hand the patina seems thick, rich and sparkly (you would have to see it in hand to see what I am describing as my words don't do justice). When I see that look on a gold coin, I am pretty confident you have an un-messed with gem. Whether all of these are indeed from Europe - who knows. But it is a look that is special, like this one. But it means the coin has probably been sitting around for at least the last century, somewhere in storage to get that look. Good stuff.
The show opened to the public at 10 am on Thursday with the typical FUN fanfare. There was a bagpipe band playing at the ribbon cutting ceremony with the band all dressed up in kilts. I am guessing there must have been around 500 folks waiting to get in, and once the door opened we slowly migrated in and dispersed. I immediately went to my favorite dealers to see what they had. Some of them also had coins for me that I bought during the fall and were picking up - 4 bust quarters I will image and show later. My primary goals were threefold - find bust quarters, find bust quarter, find bust quarters. I also had secondary goals. One was to look at as many bust dollars as I could on the floor and hopefully find one (or 2) to take home. A second one was to sell some bust halves and a gorgeous seated dime. I had decide last year that most of my seated dimes had to go as my collection interests focused on bust quarters. This year I decided I had to expand into bust dollars, so something else had to go. Turns out it will be my dozen or so bust halves that will be sacrificed. So I am letting those go slowly. For the bust dollars, I found some excellent ones at Dave Perkins table, and bought 2. Dave is perhaps one of the most knowledgeable folks in the world about this series for which he has specialized in for collecting, and now dealing for decades. My goals are to put a redbook variety set together in VF to XF grades. So I got my starter set with Dave, nice un-messed with dollars I will image and post soon.
For the bust quarters on the floor, alas, nada. I searched for the past 2 days. A few of the high end dealers had some stunning pieces in in MS64-66 grades and these were great to look at. But they are far out of my price range. Within my price range, I could not find a single bust quarter - no drop dead gorgeous uber coins (an all there, uber eye appeal, everything right for the grade A+ example) with vibrant colors at all. For rich patina grey surfaced, un-messed with examples, there were probably around 30 of these dispersed at various tables. But none of them were die marriages I did not have, alas. I could have upgraded a couple of my present pieces, but only a grade (e.g. 55 to 58, 40 to 45) or so and chose not to buy the two of these I found. I still am chasing a nice P53 CAC small bust quarter that is an upgrade from my P30 CAC piece in that die marriage we will see if that works today.
I did find an uber coin for my bust dime set. It was an 1820 STATESOF P45 CAC which was all there for the grade and gorgeous green-gold toning. The price was over 4x PCGS guide. The problem with the guide in this case was that it has not caught up with the prices for the gray toned and very few XF-AU examples of these that have come through the auctions in the past decade - these are obviously hard to find and even harder to find with uber characteristics. So with no uber examples coming through auctions in XF-AU grades, it is hard to price these. It was priced aggressively as it should be, and I was thinking it would probably hit around 3x PCGS guide if auctioned. So I knew I would have to pay a premium on it if I bought it and was worried I was paying too much. I did a cash and trade for it - 2 of my bust halves and my seated dime and some cash for it. I still was worried about the premium I paid, and Thursday evening had a good discussion with board members Ultra High Relief and Easton Collection about it. Easton has an amazing bust dime collection and knows the series as well as anyone. Both UHR and EC pointed out that there is not likely to be another one with such color in XF and AU coming out for a long time and felt the premium I paid was worth it. They did a good job of talking me out of taking it back to the dealer and trading it for another coin I was interested in. Thanks guys, I appreciated your help on this.
I was able to get alot of good interactions with PCGS message board members through the past couple days. I had discussions with lkeigwin on bust halves. ldhair and Bill Jones were good buddies throughout the show so far - dinner Thursday nite, some bourse activities together, some vibrant discussions on grading and of course, CAC...... I got to meet DIMEMAN - we teamed up for the PCGS luncheon. ldhair, Bill, Dimeman and I met at Rich Urich's table just before and then went to the luncheon ball room. What a great gentlemen DIMEMAN is and glad I got to hang with him. We also did the lunch with another PCGS board member (I always forget his handle here - sorry about that), who was also great to meet and made the lunch enjoyable. After the lunch ldhair and I talked to messydesk for a good 20 minutes about various things. I met ProLiz at a table - I had sold her a half cent in the past and it was great to meet her. Being academics, we had a nice chat about funding, research groups, and the usual thing that academics talk about. Had an lot of interactions with Ultra High Relief and Easton Collection through the 2 days. There are lots of other board members on the floor, if you see me today (SH on my name tag), please say hi and introduce yourself.
Another good activity is that I went to the JRCS meeting Friday morning. There was an excellent presentation which was followed by good discussions, on die cuds.
There were alot of uber coins out on the floor. As noted above, I stretched for one, there is one or two I am still thinking about for today. CRO of course had a table full, as did Eye Appealing Coins and Dave Perkins. The buzz was good on the bourse, you could see there was alot between dealer activity going on, and it looks like people are buying. I saw several collectors laying down large piles of cash for some gorgeous coins. So this show seems to indicate that the market and optimism are very strong right now.
Finally I will leave you with images of a gorgeous coin I saw at the Eye Appealing Coins table below. I will give a summary post tomorrow about FUN, and images of my newps soon.
Best, SH
Ooh - ah! Just one of many stunners I saw at the EAC table.
Comments
sounds like a good show for you , thanks for sharing. Looking forward to pics.
Great report.
Extremely informative. It sounds like you're really having a good time.
Thanks !
I always enjoy a good show report, thanks for sharing! It would be interesting to see a video comparison of “Europe gold” to a coin with a regular gold appearance.
Thanks for reporting back, hope your new coins relieve you future headaches
Successful transactions with : MICHAELDIXON, Manorcourtman, Bochiman, bolivarshagnasty, AUandAG, onlyroosies, chumley, Weiss, jdimmick, BAJJERFAN, gene1978, TJM965, Smittys, GRANDAM, JTHawaii, mainejoe, softparade, derryb, Ricko
Bad transactions with : nobody to date
There are loads of CC $20's coming out of France right now including better dates. I bought and sold a 79-CC $20 which made 55 CAC from that source earlier in the year.
Latin American Collection
Great report!!! Thanks for taking the time to provide such a detailed and informative write-up!!!
Thank you for a detailed and informative report.... seems you are really enjoying the show (except for the headache). Lots of forum members there as well... Have you noticed how bullion is moving? The market is up, gold and silver are also up... interesting situation (likely due to dollar being down a tad). Cheers, RickO
Love your report and am envious as hell
"She comes out of the sun in a silk dress,
running like a water color in the rain...."
Very informative, feel like i was there with you
Good question, I did not see as much activity at the bullion seller tables as I did at ANA Denver. Maybe I just happened to walk by at the wrong time, perhaps someone else at the show has more accurate info on this.
Best, SH
Thanks so very much for the great report. I am really bummed that I could not make it this year.
Thanks for the report, look forward to seeing those bust $s.
Great report. I have a small accumulation of later date bust dimes in P45/CAC and haven't found a new one in about a year, so that part of your report was nice to hear. Enjoy the rest of the show!
Well done. I am looking forward to seeing your new purchases.