Baltimore Show Report
MEJ7070
Posts: 278 ✭✭✭✭✭
Was more excited than usual for Baltimore this time around since I only needed a couple more coins to complete my 7070 registry and this show would certainly be the best opportunity to source some of the EAC that I’d been hunting. Also was fired up to take my daughter since she has the coin bug and really enjoys coming to shows w me. This would have to wait for Saturday though as she’s a 9 year old 4th grader.
Left my house in Northetn Virginia around 830 for the drive to Baltimore, which put me in the Lombard St parking garage at 950ish. The 2 lots closest to the BCC do not accept the patronage of Ford F150s, so Lombard has been my spot for years.
I’m not always an Early Bird type of guy, but made an exception for this show since I did not want to hear from any dealers that they had “just sold” the VF-XF CAC Classic Head cent I was hunting, so I paid the $100 to pop right in the show and start searching……
First stop was Dave Kahn. His team had agreed to submit a couple boxes of coins from my set to CAC. These are almost entirely coins that I’d “made” myself with our hosts, so 1st trip to the bean factory for all of them. Not my first CAC submission by any stretch but it’s the largest at one time and definitely the nicest overall group I’ve sent off. Excited to get those results sometime next month!
I was not aiming to sell anything at this show, but since I’m always ready to make an upgrade, I brought several boxes of nicer stuff that I’d have been willing to trade as part of any upgrade deal. I guess my bag was bulky as I must’ve been stopped in my tracks by 10 different dealers on Thursday morning asking if I had anything to show them. My 25 year old self (I’m
47) was jealous as I would’ve been thrilled to receive that kind of attention back in those days when I had raw stuff from my childhood to move coming out of my ears!
My first priority with the Early Bird strategy was the Classic Head cent. I should mention that I have purchased exactly zero Classic head cents before in my life…….but that’s exactly why I wanted to do a 7070 registry set….to force myself into areas of the hobby I’d always ignored and push into new areas to learn about.
Was shown a couple by a few dealers I’ve done business with before in first 20 minutes or so, including a nice 1810 NGC 40 with surfaces I drooled over (I’ve seen LOTS of lightly corroded examples in straight graded holders lately), but a light scratch between stars 1 and 2 kept me from purchasing.
At around 10:25ish, I walked past the corner display of West Coast Coins, and saw a small ray of light descending from the heavens beaming directly into their far left hand case, right into a beaned 1814 crosslet 4 in a PCGS 35 (CAC) holder. Upon close inspection I knew that this was the one I’d been looking for. Small price negotiation ensued and I was the new proud owner at around 10:30.
At this point I’m pretty much on Cloud 9….main goal for the show was in my bag, and I still had a days worth of show to hunt. Technically I still had one hole left in my CAC set because they require 4 commemoratives in their registry as opposed to the 2 that PCGS does (I’m doing both
). Commems are everywhere compared to nice EAC so while I was happy to look for a nice one, it wasn’t nearly as pressing as the Classic head.
Walked around and said hello to a few dealer friends and acquaintances, and met a few I didn’t know before, especially some of the World specialists. I’ve really enjoyed getting more into Dark Side material over the past year or so. Stopped by to see John and Mary Ann Agre from CRO to say hello but also to get a gorgeous 1817 Brazilian 960 Reis from his site under my loupe. As expected, it was superb…….and despite every urge to do so I did not have him flip the coin over since I wasn’t sure what else I was going to find and didn’t want to completely blow up my budget before I’d walked the bourse. I figured that coin wouldn’t make it to the end of the day in the CRO case, but can’t buy em all. I was happy to have had the chance to inspect it as was certainly the most appealing example I’d ever seen of the type.
At around 1155, I headed over the the PCGS table to beat the rush and drop off a whole slew of raw coins to be graded. I think the total was 112 coins in 6 different submissions! Everything from gem grade toned WLHs to a couple monster toned Roosevelt dimes all the way to the 1791 Mexican 8 Reales and 1990 Soviet Kopek went with our hosts. The awesome staff at PCGS had me processed in around 15 minutes.
Straight back to the bourse after that and in the next 2 hours I picked up 2 more coins. Both will make it into my 7070. This was the coveted last commemorative I needed. I’ve picked up a couple great coins from The Reeded Edge this year……and Robbie made this one really easy. Quite possibly the last commemorative I’ll ever buy:
And finally around 15-20 mi it’s later this caught my eye while looking through the inventory of Scarsdale Coin:
I didn’t have a PCGS graded example (CACG 58 is what I had), so this one fills a hole in my PCGS registry. I also really like the coin. I’ll never turn up my nose or take a nice sub-$200 coin for granted!
After that it was on the road back to NoVA to get back to actually run my own business for a bit and then make it back home for dinner with the family. A truly great day………….
……..but not as great as Saturday when I got to come back with my daughter.
I know this is getting really long, but I can’t say enough about the job all the Whitman folks and their volunteers are doing with outreach to kids/YNs. They’re nailing it. Their “kids bag” giveaway is genius and a great combination of fun and educational. My daughter is 9, but she knows her way around a coin shop and is learning the ropes at huge shows like Baltimore. Obviously Saturdays are getaway days for most dealers from out of town, so I had low expectations…….but I have to say that the dealer crowd who were still operating Saturday morning were just a phenomenal group of people to being my 9 year old around. I was so proud of our Coin Community. My daughter was made to feel so welcomed by so many…..
Andy and Arlynne from Angel Dee’s, John and Maryanne from CRO, Dave Kahn’s entire team (especially Melissa), Wade from Northern Nevada Rare Coin…..I hate to leave anyone out, but I was just so impressed and humbled by the kindness shown to my kid.
As we walked around I found myself back at the Scarsdale table (another dealer who was awesome to my kid). After a brief back and forth, I was able to upgrade my 3CN slot by trading my 1865 CACG 58 (common as heck but the die clashes were out of control….which I liked) and some cash for this. My pics are terrible but the coin is well struck for an 1867.
My daughter landed a Canadian mint set of some sort with a Polar Bear on it, which had her very fired up. She digs coins with animals on them 
. 
We were there to try to fill the last 3 slots left in her Roosevelt silver dime album (we could do it on EBay in 2 minutes……but it’s supposed to be about time spent together, learning to inspect and evaluate coins, and the thrill of the hunt). We went 1/3, but had an absolute blast spending a couple hours to find an MS65ish 1960 P that we snapped up for $3.
At around 1230 or so, the place was really starting to thin out and we were getting hungry for lunch. I thought we were done and we were literally on our way out the door when I see that John and Maryanne from CRO are still at their table chatting with some folks, and had not packed up yet. This was a sign from the Coin Gods. I went straight over to John and wrote the final check in my checkbook so I could take this home with me as well.
AU 58+
The Agres hooked my daughter up with a CRO hat and a better loupe than I use to wrap up one of the most fun mornings I’ve had with my kid in 2025.
I’m very appreciative towards ALL of the good people who put so much work into making events like this go off. Show organizers, volunteers, dealers, police officers working the show……..even the lady selling me the
$16.00 6 inch personal Papa John’s pizza that was probably first cooked in September.
Comments
Best show report I've ever had the pleasure to read. Thanks.
Coinlearner, Ahrensdad, Nolawyer, RG, coinlieutenant, Yorkshireman, lordmarcovan, Soldi, masscrew, JimTyler, Relaxn, jclovescoins, justindan, doubleeagle07
Now listen boy, I'm tryin' to teach you sumthin' . . . . that ain't an optical illusion, it only looks like an optical illusion.
My mind reader refuses to charge me. . . . . . .
Great report and beautiful newps.
Love the polar bear too !
That report was a pleasure to read and I’m glad that you and your daughter had such a wonderful experience.
Mark Feld* of Heritage Auctions*Unless otherwise noted, my posts here represent my personal opinions.
Great report! Glad to hear that it was such a successful trip!
Latin American Collection
Are you freeing these coins from their slabs and putting them into the 7070 album?
No. I have 7070 registry sets with PCGS and CAC. The CAC 7070 registry is the one I just “completed”…….they accept PCGS, NGC, and CACG coins. PCGS only accepts material in their holders, so I have a few coins left to be finished with that one……but no real urgency there as I’m content to have assembled examples that I like of all the coins in the set……if not all the plastic.
Interestingly enough, when I first started this project it was an album project and I did crack out a ton of coins for the purposes of adding to this set. Then I had kids and they started going up….a slide damaged AU 1909 S VDB by my then 7 year old (completely my fault obviously) changed those plans, so I had everything graded earlier this year, then finished the rest of what I didn’t have in PCGS and/or CAC plastic.
It’s been an odyssey, but definitely a labor of love. Been even more fun since my daughter got on board with it (slide damaged key dates not withstanding)
Great report, fun day out with your kid, and nice new additions. That Classic Head cent is out of this world IMO -- those are so hard to find in a state that's nice to look at.
Excellent report! Thanks for sharing and I'm glad you were able to complete a 7070... quite the accomplishment!
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Excellent report. Sounds like alot of fun!
Nice to hear that your daughter went.
Another numismatition in the making.....
Student of numismatics and collector of Morgan dollars
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Nice Report. I wish I could have gone.
Great report and NEWPs for both you and your daughter; a most successful show!
Thank you for sharing a great report. And congratulation to you both for finding some great coins.
Just a super report! Looks like you got some nice coins and had a great time with your daughter.
That was a nice read. I'm happy for you both that you had such a great time! Congrats on grabbing the 1817 960 Reis. I looked at that coin and contemplated buying it.
Awesome report!
Nice report! Thank you for sharing. It’s always great when you can get the family involved.