My first EAC conference!
renomedphys
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Last week in Pittsburgh the EAC held its annual convention and I made it a point to attend. Boy am I glad I did! The appeal of this show is that almost every table was filled with incredible lovely copper and the attendees are very much of a singular mind in that regard. What I found out early on was that several of the dealers and attendees only do this one show so you’d never even get a chance to meet them or see any of their inventory by omitting this one show from your schedule.
I got to meet Al Boka and buy his book on 1794 pedigrees, and Dan Trollan whose incredible 1794’s are the stuff of legend. I also met Russ Butcher who had a box of half cents that effectively absorbed my 1806 error, Nathan Markowitz whose eclectic taste seems to have no bounds, and Terry Denman who produced an exciting new purchase!
There were certainly the usual suspects behind the tables including the ever-present Tom Reynolds, the auction organizer and “godfather of copper” Chris McCawley, Pierre Fricke, Shawn Yancey, Col. Steven Ellsworth, Tony Terranova, John Agre, and more. And of course there were a bunch of collectors I knew from the big shows, as well as a lot of others whom I had never met.
The event itself was filled with great seminars, great food, and this year for the first time the entire event was moved offsite to the Carnegie Museum where we were able to view the Clapp collection of US Large Cents which contained some incredible coins that almost never see the light of day. And all of this was essentially paid for out of membership fees and organized by volunteers who don’t earn a cent for their work.
I can see that this post is starting to resemble a show report. I want to apologize as it was not my intent to document the goings on with a bunch of photos. There are a few but mostly of the beautiful downtown area that is Pittsburgh, some shots of a coin here or there, and some museum exhibits I found interesting so I won’t subject you to those. Just suffice it to say that it was a great time filled with great people and amazing coins!
While I was there I managed to sell two coins that were superfluous to my set, and pick up three including one that I honestly believed would continue to elude me forever. I’ll start in reverse date order and work backwards. The first coin I bought was from Tom Reynolds. I’ve been looking for quite a while for a Petite Head cent for type and he had a nice selection. After trying and failing to pick one from several in PCGS holders, I picked up an old no-line fatty NGC 1842 Large Date that was excellent! The grade was 65bn, and the obverse is essentially that uniformly faded mint red that eventually becomes the kind of brown that looks sort of blue-green. The reverse is solid RB. My dilemma here is that I impulsively cross over my NGC coins to PCGS, but I love the old NLFH’s! Here’s that one:
Next down is my new 1839 N-1 overdate that I bought Sunday morning from Shawn Yancey right as the show was closing down. This is a fascinating issue that as far as I can figure was made from a leftover die from 1836, and looks a lot to me like an inverted 6 over a 6, not a 9/6 as is generally accepted. I have been holding out on this issue trying to find one with enough meat to tell the story. Look closely at the date. This one has all of the under-date. Here’s that one I photographed earlier today:
My big purchase was an S-20b 1794 with the head of ‘93 and the flat date! My first thought when I saw it was “wow! Great color!” It was Terry Denman’s coin and was expertly sold to me by Lucas Baldridge. Terry had bought it 15 years prior out of a Goldberg auction, and had just bought another higher grade example. The prior owner was Richard Bligh who owned it for at least 50 years. It is raw and has never been certified. Here’s that one:
And the envelopes:
From the Goldberg auction:
And Terry’s:
Anyways maybe some other attendee could add to what I have here, maybe some pictures from the show. Hopefully next year I can be a better photographer and make a report that is a little more fun to look at. I’ll definitely be there in Charlotte… as when it came time to renew my membership, I clicked “lifetime”.
Comments
Thanks for a great report.
Great report and NEWPs, thanks for sharing it with us.
Love that old copper.
Good report. I have not been to any of the EAC conventions, but as a dedicated EAC guy I certainly will one day. One of the dealers you mentioned, Chris McCawley, is for sure one of the best professionals you could ever do business with in this area of collecting.
Sounds like you had a great time, and those are three fine coins. The 1794, Head of 93 is quite a prize, and your '42 Petite Head in the No-Line Fatty is gorgeous.
Thanks for sharing!
“We are only their care-takers,” he posed, “if we take good care of them, then centuries from now they may still be here … ”
Todd - BHNC #242
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Great report. Congrats on your new ladies. I love reading these. Zack.
Love your new pieces!!!! I’ve never attended an EAC convention but will do so next year in Charlotte. Hope to meet you there.
"Got a flaming heart, can't get my fill"
Great write up, thank you. I wish I could have attended but it was not in the stars for me this year.
Thank you for this report. I like the idea of a show, or something similar to one, focusing on a narrow area of numismatics. This is one that interests me.
Typically, at a show, I'll ignore 80% + of the coins because I don't collect them. I visit people I know and see what for me are a few cool coins. This event seems to have plenty of cool coins and people who were generally interested in them.
"Seu cabra da peste,
"Sou Mangueira......."
So nice to see a stunning coin in a 2x2 typewritten envelope!