Central States show report for Thursday
uscoinguy
Posts: 150 ✭✭✭
There is one consistent every year for these April shows. The weather is always cold and/or rainy. Yesterday it was 77 here- today it was 47 and very windy. I got to the show at about 11 A.M. and the parking lot was about 95% full. Although there is a lot off free parking very little of it is close to the entrance. So a decision has to made, freeze your you-know-what off on the long walk or carry your coat all through the show (the coat check was not open). All the lights in the bourse make it warm in there and air conditioning is not really used in April in Chicago. As a smoker I chose to carry my coat and that turned out to be the right call- it was pretty cold out there.
On one of my smoke breaks I chatted with a very nice gentleman who asked me if I wanted to see a 20 dollar coin he bought for a couple of thousand dollars. Obviously I was intrigued- he was right-it was an 1893 Columbus Commemorative- PGC UNC cleaned- yes a 20 dollar coin. I also noticed it had what I thought was a label error- it said John F. Kennedy. I asked why did you pay that much for a $20 coin with a label error? Then he explained it was OWNED by JFK and came with the provenance (big oops on my part). He said he also bought the 1892 sister coin. Obviously I was not familiar with this provenance label but what a nice piece of history to own!
Since it is a local show for me I always run into my collector buddies which makes for a really fun show. I was there for 6 hours talking coins and looking at coins- a coin geeks dream (of course my wife thinks I am nuts).
I was hoping to meet some of the forum members there but I found in passing it is hard to read people’s name tags. Surprisingly I found that staring at name tags for too long made them uncomfortable- or it made them check their shirts for mustard stains.
For a buyer the show was just about right- not crowded to the point of not being able to view the display cases- but there seemed to be plenty of buyers to keep the sellers interested. My local dealer said his sales were very good- as he said “people came to buy-the tire kickers stayed home”.
As usual there were a lot of slabbed Morgans and gold coins at the show. I bought a PCGS 1853 no arrows seated dime from Brian Greer but mainly I go to shows to look at raw coins for my Dansco books. There were several dealers with quality circulated raw coins which for me makes for an enjoyable show. To me raw coins have to be viewed in hand- I do not buy them off the internet.
I also learned that going early to the show early on the first day it opens is the way to go- the coins I look for have not been picked through nearly as much as on the second day. So for my one big coin show of the year it was a great success!
Comments
Nice report! Raw coins seem to be an area where one can still get a good deal. And it certainly helps to see them in hand! Congrats on your purchases!
Nice report... and I agree about getting to a show early on the first day.... that was always how I did it. Best time to find the deals... also, scope out the 'newer' tables before going to the regular dealers... often find fresh material.... Cheers, RickO
Thank you for the interesting show report.
Always enjoy reading these reports! Thank you!
Larry L.
which 1853 na did you get, he had VG and VF if I recall correctly?
Actually I bought the G-6- the VG had some scratches that were not very appealing. The VF was out of my budget for this show- I wanted to buy more than one coin
nice report