2018 ANA World's Fair of Money ~ Show Report

I left the NYC area early Wednesday morning in an effort to get to the convention center in time to make the 8:00 am JRCS meeting. Leaving early helped avoid traffic and I got to the meeting room during introductions. The JRCS meeting was very well attended, and after announcements and awards, there was a most interesting educational presentation.

David Finkelstein and Chris Pilliod gave a really great presentation on a project that they have been working on, however I don't remember the exact title of the presentation. It has everything to do with the metal make up of early U.S. coins, primarily 1794 and 1795 half dollars. Dave started the talk explaining a number of tangents that he had come up with while researching the early activities at the mint in the archives. Be the end of his talk, he had shown the connections between the various tangents he had found. One of the things that was discussed was the amount of silver in the early half dollars and whether the mint was making them with the designated amount of silver that was set as standard.

In order to test out theories and see what was being done, seven 1795 half dollars and one 1794 half dollar were destroyed in order to do a detailed metal analysis on each coin. Heritage was kind enough to donate a very low grade 1794 half dollar from the Terry Brand collection for testing, and the seven 1795 halves all turned out to be different varieties representing early, middle, and late varieties in the emission sequence. Chris, a metallurgist, went on the explain the findings of the testing to the group, though some results were just recently received. It was all very interesting, and some more tests will be run. There is more work to be done with the data as well, and some more coins may be tested. Some early copper was also a part of the testing sample.

The mint was buying tons of lead at the time, and all of the coins had lead in them. The silver coins had lead, copper, silver, and gold, but the copper coins did not have any trace of gold. The testing was looking to see if the mint was using 90% silver in the coins, or 89.x% silver and whether the mint was trying to get to the correct specifications. There was a lot of information, and it was a great presentation, but the club went over the allotted hour and a half time slot and we had to vacate for the next group to come in and set up.

After the JRCS meeting, I went up to the bourse floor and noticed the long lines for the public admissions and breezed in with my pre-registration badge. I walked around looking for bust quarters and saw that Rick Harrison from Pawn Stars was at a table taking photos and talking with folks. He had an Elvis impersonator with him and was selling encapsulated silver Elvis rounds.

I went over and checked out the exhibits, and found the cases of confiscated counterfeits from a recently arrested NJ resident who had been posing as a TSS (?) Agent with a badge while he duped people into buying his counterfeits. A sting was set up after a person that purchased from him brought the purchase to a local coin dealer and found out they were counterfeit. The seller was arrested after the sting and his house was searched, revealing counterfeit material that could have been worth in the neighborhood of $40 million. It was interesting seeing all of the different kinds of counterfeits... copper, silver, various denominations, slabbed in PCGS holders, raw, small bars, etc. Yikes!

After walking the floor some more and finding only varieties I have, I headed over to the BQCS meeting (Bust Quarter Collector Society). Dr. Glenn Peterson started the meeting off with introductions, and we had a lively discussion on the E and L bust quarter counterstamps and the number of different theories on them. It was a fun meeting, and we hope that one day we'll have "smoking gun" proof on why they were made.

After the BQCS meeting, I walked the bourse some more, visiting tables that had the types of coins I was seeking. The hall is so big that you get lost and can't remember where the tables you were just at went. I visited and talked with many of the usual dealers that had early US material, looking for a few varieties I need.

There were some neat exhibits, like the 1933 double eagles surrounded by three guards in the U.S. Mint area. They stepped away so I could take pictures, then marveled at them... I guess since they were on a mini rotating tower:

The ANA Money Museum also had nice selections:

On Thursday it was more of the same, talking with friends/dealers, looking for cool coins, and doing some lot viewing. I really liked viewing Eric Newman's 1792 Gold Washington pattern and wondered what it would bring. There wasn't a lot in the auctions for me. I had an interest in one bust quarter, but it seemed like it might have some PVC and passed. Another quarter I wasn't paying much attention to due to it's look went very cheaply at auction for an R5 variety.

I had fun talking with Bob Evans about the SS Central America treasure, and I think @jonathanb may have been there at the same time as me based on the details in his report. I was especially trying to find out about the silver coins and when they would be coming available, but it seems it will still be a while. Of course, when I asked about the bust quarters, one of the guys next to me a did not know perked up and said that he collected bust quarters. I was glad to hear of another bust quarter collector I don't know, but it also now made me wonder how much harder it might be to try and obtain one from the SS Central America myself.

Here are a few pictures from the table.

The bar with the sold sign went for one million.

Here are some of the other bars:

This gold bar was at a different table on the floor:

The counterstamped gold coins were also on display, which I really liked:

On Friday, I started out with the 9am EAC (Early American Coppers) meeting. I was surprised that attendance seemed lighter than the JRCS meeting, but we were missing the early copper dealers that were manning their tables. There was some discussion about upcoming sales, and membership. It was good to see a number of YN's at the meeting (as well as at the JRCS meeting). It was nice speaking to Garret Ziss, who was there. I usually see him at some of the shows I attend, the last being the Philly EAC Convention last year. Garret talked about some interviews he was filming with EAC members that will be posted to You Tube, while another YN spoke about his promoting the club on Twitter - both were interesting and positive, and reminded us that there are younger collectors online. After a while, we adjourned and I went back up the the bourse floor until it was time to head to the PCGS luncheon.

I've never been to a PCGS luncheon, and there was a pretty good line to get in when I got there. Luckily I made it before all 100 of the special luncheon slabs ran out, I believe not everyone may have gotten one since they only had 100. The lunch was first, followed by Don Willis who made some announcements (some of which have already been posted about). Then David Hall took the podium for some stories and the distributing of awards. D. L. Hansen received a stack of plaques, along with a couple other collectors; Stewart Blay for his barber dimes, and Cardinal for best digital album with his Libertas Americana Tokens of the U.S. Centennial.

After the luncheon, it was back to the floor for some more searching before heading back home at the end of the day. Here are D. L. Hansen Liberty Seated Dollars that were on display:

For @Paradisefound, and other Libertas aficionados, I saw this one on the floor:

Of course @CoinRaritiesOnline had many cool pieces. I particularly like some of the 2 Reales at the table, but found others commenting on this seldom seen piece:

It was nice being able to see selections from the Easton Collection at Eye Appealing Coins. I think this was one of my favorite quarters though:

I had a good time at the show even though I didn't pick up too much. I do have some follow-ups with certain folks now that I'm home, so that may bring some new pick-ups ahead. It was nice meeting up with old friends, and also making some new ones. In particular, after years of emails and phone calls, it was great to finally meet @Barndog and @lkeigwin in person.

1TwoBits