Charmy's 2025 Rosemont/Chicago Great American Coin Show Report w/lots of pics!
ThePennyLady
Posts: 4,496 ✭✭✭✭✭
Since I wasn't able to attend the ANA in Oklahoma City (the first ANA WFM Show I've missed since I've been attending ANA shows), it feels like it's been quite a while since I was at a large show and prepared a show report. Therefore, I was really looking forward to attending this show and really hoped that it would be busy and successful - and I was NOT disappointed.
I was very happy as I settled into my seat for my flight from sunny OC to Chicago. And I always enjoy the view as we fly over Newport Beach with the pretty coastline and then turn around and head east over the hills.
A few hours later we were flying over Chicago and into O'Hare.
I checked into my room at the Hyatt (I had a view of the convention center from my room), grabbed a bite and a glass of wine at the bar, then settled in for the night.
Beautiful view from my room in the morning
Wednesday was Dealer Day so I headed over to the convention center early, checked my bags into security, got my badge and headed into the trading room which was already buzzing with dealers trading back and forth.
I made my usual rounds, asking dealers if they had any boxes of pennies, which most did. I ended up finding quite a few great Indian and Lincoln cents from several dealers at the trading room, as well as throughout the show, including one of the nicest 1914-D Lincoln cents (PCGS MS64+ RB/RED) I've come across in a long time, as well as several other very pretty pennies! I was also very pleased with being able to find several quality pieces throughout the show specifically for my customers' collections.
Here is the bourse floor waiting to be filled by all of us dealers!
At 3pm it was time for the dealers to set up on the bourse floor which began at 3pm. While waiting to get into the show, some of you may have heard that Rick Snow had a health issue and passed out while standing in line and was taken to the hospital. Most folks know Rick and I are good friends and several people have asked me how he is doing. Without going into personal specifics, he was released from the hospital on Friday morning and came to the show looking great, then flew home on Saturday, and is doing fine.
Here's me all set up and ready for business!
After I did some more "shopping" around the floor, it was time to open a bottle of wine. I brought one of my very favorites, Rombauer Zinfandel.
After set up day was over, we walked over to Gibson's for dinner and had cocktails while waiting for our table to be ready (we had reservations which you definitely needed!). The bar at Gibson's is also very popular and was quite crowded.
Dinner at Gibson's is always great and is one of the best steakhouses I've been to, and their wine is pretty great too! We started out with his Chardonnay, Ferrari Carona.
These are my foreign coin dealer friends
The waiter showed us the various available cuts of meat we had to choose from.
We ordered a very nice Penfold's Cab with dinner.
I had a delicious filet with garlic, and the table shared these delicious brussel sprouts, as well as other various yummy sides.
As usual when there's a coin show in town, there were several tables of other coin dealers having dinner in the restaurant as well
And then of course, we had some of Gibson's famous and most delicious giant sized carrot cake and creme brule - we took most of the carrot cake to go and shared the next day!
Here's the sign on the walkway to the convention center with a big advertisement of the show that I passed on my way back to the hotel.
On THURSDAY I was thrilled to see there was a very long line of public waiting to get into the show!
The morning was quite busy and I had some very good sales, including my 1856 Flying Eagle cent S-3 (Mint State) in PCGS AU55. My customer was absolutely thrilled to add this to his collection, along with a beautifully toned 1955/55 Double Die Lincoln cent in PCGS AU58 he also bought from me.
Some folks stopped by my table to say hi, including Larry Jewett from Coin World who is a super nice guy! We talked about me possibly writing an article or two for Coin World!
John Kent, ILNA President
Robert Julian, Numismatic Art - his hand-drawn coin artwork is truly amazing (you'll see photos of his booth later in this report)
This is DavidK7 from the forums
And this is Tyler who worked hard and did an amazing job helping Larry put this show together
Dino and his beautiful wife Lisa from Ace of Coins
Wade and Alan from Northern Nevada Coin
Neil and Kenny Snow at Rick Snow's table
John Schuch
Peter Treglia from Stacks Bowers
Chad Stachowicz - he had some very nice Indian cents that I purchased from him!
Happy hard working folks at PCGS
ANACS
CAC
General pics from around the bourse
That afternoon I finished off the Rombauer Zinfandel with some help from a few other folks! Along with the rest of the Rombauer, a friend gave me this Cline Zinfandel, and Mike "Noodle" also brought me this nice Oregon Bellingar Pinot. That's Brian from Northeast Numismatics photobombing my wine bottle shot!
Thursday night we headed over to Carlucci's for dinner.
I had another pre-dinner Hendricks and tonic, and Justin Waddel joined me while we waited for the rest of our party.
While we waited, Justin showed me this stunning toner 1885-O Morgan dollar in PCGS M S67+/CAC he had brought with him!
I had dinner with Justin, James Sego and Curt Mease.
We had this wonderful Carpineto Toscano Reserva and the food was absolutely delicious!
FRIDAY morning when I arrived at the show I took some time to walk around the bourse to take more photos. There was a big display of fascinating items from the Central American shipwreck.
Then I went over to Robert Julian's table to view his display of amazing handdrawn coin artwork!
For the umteenth time, I had a guy stop by my table to show me a "1943 copper" cent that he inherited from his grandfather. After all the years I've been doing this and attending shows, I have never had anyone show me an actual authentic copper 1943, though I have seen in hand several over the years that other dealers were selling or on display at a large show. And I don't just have them rely on my opinion, I always refer them to another experienced copper dealer whom I respect like Andy at Angel Dees or Rick Snow so they can have a second opinion from someone who deals in copper. However, this experience was a little unusual in that the guy had already taken the coin to PCGS who deemed it counterfeit. He even had the PCGS tag with "counterfeit" on it. After I explained that PCGS sends coins like this to their own expert, I asked him why he doubted them, and he said they could have switched the coin and kept the authentic one and returned a counterfeit coin to him. So after I advised him that this was very unlikely, I took a look at it and in my opinion it was definitely a struck counterfeit (of course the first thing I check is whether was coated and sticks to a magnet, which he had already done), but as I mentioned above, I went ahead and also referred him to Andy to verify that as well.
I know it's hard for these folks who have a lot of hope of owning a very rare coin like this could have been, only to have their hopes dashed, but it's also frustrating when they ask for our opinion and we give it, but our telling them we don't believe their coin is authentic makes them angry or upset or argumentative and they think we don't know what we're doing. I remind them that THEY asked for MY OPINION, and that's what I gave them and they are free to take it or leave it. So this time when I got home, I pulled out this article that I had in my counterfeit file and decided to make copies and carry them with me to shows in the hopes that it may help these people who find that rare "1943 copper" to see some of the diagnostics for themselves and possibly educate them in determining if their coin is counterfeit or authentic.
The show was pretty busy in the morning (as usual, it wasn't as busy as Thursday), but I again had some very good sales which, of course, sure helped to pay for all the coins I purchased throughout the show!
For you gold lovers, James Sego showed me this stunning scarce 1910 $20 gold piece in PCGS PF67+. It's the second finest known proof $20 gold piece in the series.
On Friday afternoon Brian (Northeast Numismatics) gave me a bottle of wine they had for dinner the previous night but didn't finish and since they were flying home that night he couldn't take it with him. I ended up sharing this and the other two bottles of wine with several other dealers since there was plenty to go around!
Friday night James Sego reserved a private room at Gibson's and organized a large group of us to have dinner together.
Here are some of the dishes we had
SATURDAY morning was typically slow, with quite a few dealers already packed up and gone. My flight wasn't until that afternoon so I stayed until about 2pm, but the bourse was a deserted ghosttown by then! However, my good friend Alan Flint (who happens to be the brother of a guy I worked with at Morrison & Foerester for about 15 years back in my litigation paralegal days) stopped by to say hi and made my day!
I had a few small sales, but for the most part the show was pretty much over by noon. Soon it was time to pack up and head to the airport. I was on the same flight as my friend Karl Stephens so we headed out together. Bye-bye Chicago til next time....
Our flight even arrived back in OC EARLY!
My hubby was out of town so I just had Penny to greet me - and she gave me this "why are you bothering me" look!
So I very much enjoyed this show and, by most accounts, it was quite successful - Larry, Coin World, and their team did a great job putting it together, marketing it, and ironing out any kinks that arose. They even already have dates for next year's show in Rosemont (Sept 30 - Oct 3, 2026), which I plan to attend since as I mentioned, Chicago is a great coin town!
Comments
Great meeting you, and an excellent show report as usual!
Collector of Capped Bust Halves, SLQ's, Commems, and random cool stuff! @davidv_numismatics on Instagram
A wonderful show, love that 1914 d wheat back as well
Not too many folks on the bourse floor photos.
Lots of people eating good Chicago food and drink.
Great coin photos.
verdict still out if I go next year?
Need to hear more from those who were there.
I always enjoy your show reports Charmy and appreciate the time you take to create them.
we can sympathize here. we answer a lot of questions here and are at times met with arguments. (recently, i think pcgs got trolled by someone, as did we) there have been a few hostile people despite efforts at an easy let down
as far as RS, my brother passed out in the shower in high school. perhaps he has the body of a high schooler?
and say hi to penny!
Liked the recap. And the 55/55 photos. Will look forward to your CW articles if/when they appear.
Great report Charmy. I am glad to hear it was a good show for you and that next year is set. Thanks for putting so much into this great hobby. It's appreciated by so many.
On the collector side of things I think they did a great job and I will be there again next year.
Successful BST with drddm, BustDMs, Pnies20, lkeigwin, pursuitofliberty, Bullsitter, felinfoel, SPalladino
$5 Type Set https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/u-s-coins/type-sets/half-eagle-type-set-circulation-strikes-1795-1929/album/344192
CBH Set https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/everyman-collections/everyman-half-dollars/everyman-capped-bust-half-dollars-1807-1839/album/345572
Great report as always.
Thank you for your excellent report! Always enjoy!
Thanks once again for sharing your show report, Charmy.
I was really impressed with Robert Julian's art. Thanks for including his work in your report.
I liked the Central American shipwreck display also.
Glad you had success on the buying / selling end.
You always seem to have a good time.
Looking forward to your next show report.
Wayne
Kennedys are my quest...
Always come away from your reports hungry.
Gorgeous 55/55
BST: KindaNewish (3/21/21), WQuarterFreddie (3/30/21), Meltdown (4/6/21), DBSTrader2 (5/5/21) AKA- unclemonkey on Blow Out
As always, wonderful photos and write up.
Love the report, Charmy. Was a bit worried when I did not see you at the ANA Show.
Tim
Thank you for your report.
I see my elementary school and high school in the second photo!
Great report! The Central American shipwreck exhibit is magnificent.
I would’ve had a hard time letting go of that toned 55/55 - I’m sure the new owner is over the moon to obtain it.
Wonderful report, and most importantly, happy to hear Ricks doing better.
Dave
I have missed your show revues. I was happy to see this one when I logged onto the forum this afternoon. It was a great report as always and the photos and information were welcome. Thank you.
Nice show report and great mixture of coin and people photos. Show looked solid.
Wow, I don't think I've ever seen as good-looking a proof Saint or Liberty Double Eagle as that PR-67+.
All the previous photos I had showed the coins in either the matte or satin look with neither thrilling collectors of the period. The modern day mirror-finish that many of us like is close to these coins.
Great review as always, Charmy.
Another great show report, Charmy. Thanks for taking the time.
Donato
Donato's Complete US Type Set ---- Donato's Dansco 7070 Modified Type Set ---- Donato's Basic U.S. Coin Design Set
Successful transactions: Shrub68 (Jim), MWallace (Mike)
oh...i can't make shows anymore, but for the forum: when is the next potential show for you?