Another fruitful show!

The latest Baltimore show is now history. I took off from work Thursday for the B&M lot viewing in the morning, and for the show itself in the afternoon. Only one of the auction lots in which I was interested impressed enough to bid on. It was a Proof 63 Cameo 1890 half dollar. I wanted to put a cent through dollar 1890 set together in 64 as a high school graduation present for my son born in 1990. I'm overdue on the half...

At 2PM the doors opened to the public. I made a beeline to a dealer who expressed interest in my duplicate 1841 cent at Coinfest a few weeks ago. He liked it well enough to pay my asking price, so I was well pleased with my small profit. I proceeded to check out as many dealer's tables as I could before having to take my wife home from work.

After a few bites to eat, I checked on-line to see the current bid on that 1890 half. It was still low. I headed back downtown, a bit too late for the food at the auction. As it progressed into the seated halves, I got a bit worried because many lots were opening higher than the on-line current bids, though most lots were going with zero or one bid from the floor. When the 1890 lot opened still low, I thought I had a chance. I raised my bidder card. So did someone else. I raised mine again. So did he. At that point another bid would be past my limit, and another 1890 half had gotten away.

Friday was a better day. I like my job, but taking off from work to attend a coin show is better. I finished scanning the bourse floor, having identified several potential purchases, mostly half dimes. I didn't buy any because I wanted to place some bids in a dealer's 'sealed bid sale', results of which would be available Saturday morning.

While checking out dealer offerings, I came upon the Liberty Seated Collectors Club (LSCC) tables. A couple men were behind the tables (which had nice collections of quarters and dimes on display), talking with a couple next to me. The husband took note of my interest in the dime collection and engaged me in conversation. By the time it was done, he had paid my first year of membership in the club! Some coin people are really great. Someday I'll pay that kindness forward.

For some time I've been trying to find a copy of The Federal Half Dimes book by Logan & McCloskey, without success. The book dealer at the show said he didn't have one, and last sold one for $300. My new LSCC friend had showed me his copy during our conversation, and I asked him where I might get hooked up with one. He pointed me to a dealer at the show, Jack Beymer. I went to his table and asked. Within about 10 minutes, his store in California was open, a phone call was made, and the book would be mine - for $75 post-paid.

Saturday morning I returned to the show. After checking results of the sealed bid sale (I struck out), I headed over to the dealer who sells special items from foreign mints. I've written before that I work on the Hubble Space Telescope project. On Friday I had seen a pair of "400 Years of Telescope" coins issued by the Republic of Palau. The first coin features Hans Lippershey, credited as inventor of the telescope. The second coin features what else - the Hubble Space Telescope. The two coins have lenses embedded in them and can be used together as a tiny telescope. That's pretty cool stuff for a coin and astronomy geek like me.

Next up, I had to check out Chris McCawley's table. He had a few large cents of interest to me: an AU58 1821; a brown 63RB 1828; and a 63BN 1829. The first two are needed for my set, and the latter one would be a nice upgrade. The 1829 was the only one I liked well enough (coin & price) to consider. It was that or a nifty MS66 1854 with Arrows half dime. I thought about them, looked at the half dime again, considered my numismatic budget (about $2000 in the red at this point), the family budget (okay, but no current surplus), and decided to get both. Fortunately, it was time for the Early American Coppers meeting. I had some time to come to my senses. Well, half way. I ended up buying the half dime, which is now in my half dime & type sets.

Here's the Hubble coin...