My day at Santa Clara.
SanctionII
Posts: 12,621 ✭✭✭✭✭
I make it to Santa Clara as often as I can, since it is relatively close and since it is the biggest regular Bay Area show.
Went to the office this morning for a couple of hours. Then left, ran an errand, lunched with the wife and headed to Great America Parkway and the convention center. Arrived at the show at about 1:15 p.m. Scoped things out and said hello to a few dealers.
At 2:00 p.m. I stopped by the food tables and met with Skyman and Carlwolforth. Later on W. Chang and Ben (Beacoka, SP?) stopped by.
I had met Skyman and W. Chang before. Nice to see them again. Met Carl and Ben for the first time and was very pleased to do so.
Skyman and I met and the recent Fremont show and he brought some show and tell material. He bought some more show and tell material today and it was fantastic. He brought numerous slabbed "Battlecreek" Morgans. If I could get my hands on some Morgans like his I could actually get to like Morgans. He also brought a proof Morgan slabbed in a PCGS old green rattler. It is a lock CAM and probably a DCAM, but since it was slabbed so long ago it lacks the designation. He brought an early 19th Century MS silver dollar. WOW is all I can say. He also brought his 1938 CAM proof Walker and 1950 CAM, 1958 DCAM and 1959 CAM Frankies. The 1938 Walker looks like a modern CAM Proof ASE. Stunning coins. Absolutely stunning. The 1950 and the 1958 Frankies are coins pictured in Mr. Tomaska's book on 1950-70 Cameo Proof and SMS coins. He also brought a stunningly toned silver war nickel and a 1958 CAM proof quarter (1958 is his birth year). He also had with him two 1958 Mint Set toner Frankies and a 1958 Mint set toner dime. Very vibrant colors that show how beautiful Frankies can be.
Carl had his holey coin baseball cap on and he brought some early (38-42 era) proof Jeffersons with him. He did not have each year, but the three coins he did show me had watery mirrored fields and Cameo devices. He wants to get a complete run of 38-42 nickels with the same Cameo look. Quite an endeavor and I wish him great success.
I brought my Capital Holder CAM/DCAM Proof Frankie set, a Capital Holder with CAM/DCAM examples of the 65-67 SMS coins and my Dansco 7070 type set for show and tell. One of my favorite Type Set coins is a 1926 S MS Peace Dollar. I picked it up from a local shop about a year ago. It was in a 1970's vintage "Redfield" holder and it has toned up very nicely on both sides.
Show and tell was great fun. I visited at the food table until 3:30 and then left to search the bourse. I stopped at a dealer's table and talked for about 30 minutes. He has helped me with filling holes in my type set album. Today I picked up a bust half cent in AU and an XF/AU Seated Liberty no arrows half. Both coins are now in the Dansco, looking very nice.
I looked around some more and stopped by a dealer who has a large inventory, including proof and SMS sets. I have bought from him many times in the past and he always lets me look through large numbers of these sets. I did so today and picked up multiple sets with nice CAM coins, including 2 1965 quarters, 2 1965 cents, 2-3 1965 halves, a 1957 nickel, a 1956 cent and quarter and a 1956 Type 1 proof half with a DCAM reverse and a light to moderate CAM obverse [this is the best Type 1 I have ever found].
The dealer and his assistant kept feeding me sets to look through and I never got through them all. He had hundreds of flat pack proof sets from 1955-64. He had picked them up during the show and had already resold them [darn it]. He and his assistant were also going through other sets and setting selected sets aside for someone. The dealer was kind enough to let me peek at these sets. Drop dead gorgeous individual DCAM coins in some of them, including a 1965 SMS half and a 1966 SMS half that looked like a 1964 DCAM proof.
By now it was approaching 6:00 p.m. and I stopped by one other dealer to check out some SMS sets. I found a 1966 set with a gorgeous half with DCAM frost but with mirrors that, while nice, were not the deep, black watery kind (rats, foiled again). I also found a 1967 SMS set with a lock CAM dime. When I paid for these sets I handed bills to the dealer. He looked at them and told me I had given him a $20.00 Star Note. I did not even notice. He gave it back to me and I replaced it with a regular note. I also stopped by Ben's table. He had a $10.00 gold Indian. I love the design of that coin and one day will have to pick one up. It is my favorite 20th century gold coin design.
I wanted to look for Lincolns to upgrade my Dansco Lincoln album with but did not have the time. I also wanted to talk with other dealers and look over the entire bourse but did not have the time.
The best part of the day was meeting other forum members to talk and to engage in a little show and tell. Talking with dealers I have done business with in the past was also nice.
All in all a good way to spend the day. Now that the family has retired, I guess I will pull out todays haul and do some up close inspection of the loot
Went to the office this morning for a couple of hours. Then left, ran an errand, lunched with the wife and headed to Great America Parkway and the convention center. Arrived at the show at about 1:15 p.m. Scoped things out and said hello to a few dealers.
At 2:00 p.m. I stopped by the food tables and met with Skyman and Carlwolforth. Later on W. Chang and Ben (Beacoka, SP?) stopped by.
I had met Skyman and W. Chang before. Nice to see them again. Met Carl and Ben for the first time and was very pleased to do so.
Skyman and I met and the recent Fremont show and he brought some show and tell material. He bought some more show and tell material today and it was fantastic. He brought numerous slabbed "Battlecreek" Morgans. If I could get my hands on some Morgans like his I could actually get to like Morgans. He also brought a proof Morgan slabbed in a PCGS old green rattler. It is a lock CAM and probably a DCAM, but since it was slabbed so long ago it lacks the designation. He brought an early 19th Century MS silver dollar. WOW is all I can say. He also brought his 1938 CAM proof Walker and 1950 CAM, 1958 DCAM and 1959 CAM Frankies. The 1938 Walker looks like a modern CAM Proof ASE. Stunning coins. Absolutely stunning. The 1950 and the 1958 Frankies are coins pictured in Mr. Tomaska's book on 1950-70 Cameo Proof and SMS coins. He also brought a stunningly toned silver war nickel and a 1958 CAM proof quarter (1958 is his birth year). He also had with him two 1958 Mint Set toner Frankies and a 1958 Mint set toner dime. Very vibrant colors that show how beautiful Frankies can be.
Carl had his holey coin baseball cap on and he brought some early (38-42 era) proof Jeffersons with him. He did not have each year, but the three coins he did show me had watery mirrored fields and Cameo devices. He wants to get a complete run of 38-42 nickels with the same Cameo look. Quite an endeavor and I wish him great success.
I brought my Capital Holder CAM/DCAM Proof Frankie set, a Capital Holder with CAM/DCAM examples of the 65-67 SMS coins and my Dansco 7070 type set for show and tell. One of my favorite Type Set coins is a 1926 S MS Peace Dollar. I picked it up from a local shop about a year ago. It was in a 1970's vintage "Redfield" holder and it has toned up very nicely on both sides.
Show and tell was great fun. I visited at the food table until 3:30 and then left to search the bourse. I stopped at a dealer's table and talked for about 30 minutes. He has helped me with filling holes in my type set album. Today I picked up a bust half cent in AU and an XF/AU Seated Liberty no arrows half. Both coins are now in the Dansco, looking very nice.
I looked around some more and stopped by a dealer who has a large inventory, including proof and SMS sets. I have bought from him many times in the past and he always lets me look through large numbers of these sets. I did so today and picked up multiple sets with nice CAM coins, including 2 1965 quarters, 2 1965 cents, 2-3 1965 halves, a 1957 nickel, a 1956 cent and quarter and a 1956 Type 1 proof half with a DCAM reverse and a light to moderate CAM obverse [this is the best Type 1 I have ever found].
The dealer and his assistant kept feeding me sets to look through and I never got through them all. He had hundreds of flat pack proof sets from 1955-64. He had picked them up during the show and had already resold them [darn it]. He and his assistant were also going through other sets and setting selected sets aside for someone. The dealer was kind enough to let me peek at these sets. Drop dead gorgeous individual DCAM coins in some of them, including a 1965 SMS half and a 1966 SMS half that looked like a 1964 DCAM proof.
By now it was approaching 6:00 p.m. and I stopped by one other dealer to check out some SMS sets. I found a 1966 set with a gorgeous half with DCAM frost but with mirrors that, while nice, were not the deep, black watery kind (rats, foiled again). I also found a 1967 SMS set with a lock CAM dime. When I paid for these sets I handed bills to the dealer. He looked at them and told me I had given him a $20.00 Star Note. I did not even notice. He gave it back to me and I replaced it with a regular note. I also stopped by Ben's table. He had a $10.00 gold Indian. I love the design of that coin and one day will have to pick one up. It is my favorite 20th century gold coin design.
I wanted to look for Lincolns to upgrade my Dansco Lincoln album with but did not have the time. I also wanted to talk with other dealers and look over the entire bourse but did not have the time.
The best part of the day was meeting other forum members to talk and to engage in a little show and tell. Talking with dealers I have done business with in the past was also nice.
All in all a good way to spend the day. Now that the family has retired, I guess I will pull out todays haul and do some up close inspection of the loot
0
Comments
Although setup day was satisfactory, sales and attendance figures on Thursday and Friday were horrendous, especially in the afternoon hours. Most dealers' intventories were filled with tired, undesirable material and most of the public attendees were in the mood to sightsee and not in the mood to buy coins. Although a few dealers reported decent sales, the majority of the dealers reported sluggish retail sales figures. There were even a few dealers who claimed to have not made one single sale to a member of the public as of the end of Friday.
You know it's a slow show when somebody is willing to pay an extra fee to change their plane ticket and give up their upgraded first class seat for a center seat in coach in order to leave one day early. Yet several dealers were willing to do that.
On an optimistic note, perhaps Saturday will be a new and better day for the show. We'll see by tommorrow.
Authorized dealer for PCGS, PCGS Currency, NGC, NCS, PMG, CAC. Member of the PNG, ANA. Member dealer of CoinPlex and CCE/FACTS as "CH5"
Didn't wanna get me no trade
Never want to be like papa
Working for the boss every night and day
--"Happy", by the Rolling Stones (1972)
<< <i>Thanks for the report. Sounded like a fun day (except for the part about going to the office
An authorized PCGS dealer, and a contributor to the Red Book.