The Penny Lady

Here's an article that Jack Young wrote about these counterfeits, it's very enlightening and well worth the read:  https://coinweek.com/from-the-dark-corner-counterfeit-early-coppers-in-genuine-tpg-holders/?fbclid=IwAR1lwFG4kYGFf9272zRYhPQYLrjED6GzKd5ZOB0Vm2V3i9tI0oU3MV-0A8Y

Thank you everyone for all your kind comments. I'm very glad to see that coin shows are thriving and even getting busier and better. It's also great to see more and more young adults participating and working the shows as well.

The ANA and the CSNS show in particular make a point of adding the social aspect to their shows. It's not just the fun part, which it definitely is, but to me, this is a very important part of coin shows as it helps us get to know the folks we deal/work with, gives us more knowledge about what's going on in the numismatic world, and I learn who I can refer customers to if I don't have what they're looking for, and vice versa. The cocktail hour and dinner events to me are a great asset and huge benefit to participating in coin shows.

The counterfeit issue is really scary and frustrating, and requires that everyone be very diligent and know the series that they collect. And it certainly doesn't hurt to take any counterfeit detection class available, especially the in depth ones offered at the ANA Summer Seminar. The counterfeits I saw and posted about in this show report were very deceptive. I couldn't tell they were counterfeits until Jack showed me the specific signs on these coins - whoever made them knew how to try and make them look as authentic as possible, even using real planchets from old worn out coins. Next time you're at a large show and you see Jack Young, ask him to show you any counterfeit coins he may have with him. He's very knowledgeable and very willing to share that knowledge.

It’s been a couple days since I returned from the Central States show in Schaumburg and I’m still trying to dig out from all the coins I sold and purchased, as well as the dreaded paperwork that always follows after a large coin show. There was so much activity at the show this year, starting for me from the Greysheet reception on Tuesday evening all the way through the end of the show. I was busy at my table almost consistently throughout each day, then grabbing a quick drink with friends right after the show, then attending social events and dinners each evening, followed by more gatherings at the hotel bar after dinner events! Big kudos and applause to Larry, Mitch, and all of their staff and helpers who made this show the huge success it was!

I left OC early on Tuesday, so I could be in Chicago for the preshow social event sponsored by Greysheet, Cabrella Shipping Insurance and Whatnot.

Landing in Chicago!

This is a pic of the iconic beautiful changing colorful lights at the O’Hare airport

I arrived at the beautiful Renaissance Hotel where the show is held and where many dealers and collectors stayed.

After checking in and taking my bags to security, I joined my foreign coin dealer friends Karl and Joanne in their hotel room for a glass of wonderful aged Viognier wine before dinner.

After dinner, we headed over to the hotel bar for the dealer reception where many dealers had already gathered.

It was a fantastic event, and everyone had a blast – thank you Greysheet, Cabrella Shipping Insurance and Whatnot!

I made a contribution to CSNS and became one of the several “sponsors” of the show which meant that we could set up and get into the show an hour earlier than other dealers. I really enjoyed this extra “quiet” hour each day as it allowed me to get some work done at my booth which I happily took advantage of!

Wednesday was PNG day so I headed over to the show early to do some “shopping”! There was lots of signage throughout the halls and bourse floor.

This year they had set up a room on the second floor above the bourse floor for dealers who had lesser expensive inventory, and for Sunday only dealers. This is their room before set up.

There were quite a few PNG dealers set up and I bought a lot of coins that first day. These are all the coins I bought throughout the show – as you can see, I found several awesome Pretty Pennies!

I also found some nice coins to add to my raw coin inventory

PNG day ended at 2:30 and the sponsor dealers were let in at 3:00, then all dealers were let in at 4:00pm for set up. The CSNS folks left at each dealer table a nice little goodie back that included a great small bottle of window cleaner and a cloth for the cases, and these cute little M&M packs sponsored by Mitch Ernst and his family!

I was so happy to see my very good friend and ex-fellow WIN board member Cindi Wibker who is now retired from running the FUN show but was recruited to help out with the CSNS show

Billie and Amanda at Greysheet were all set up and ready to go!

After I finished setting up and making my rounds, soon it was time to open one of the bottles of wine I had brought. I usually bring my more favorite bottles to share with some of my customers and fellow dealers. And one of my favorites is this Cab from Del Dotto vineyards in Napa.

My friend and fellow dealer James Sego and PNG board member had an extra ticket to the PNG dinner so I was very happy to be able to attend this prestigious event which was held at Maggiano’s on Wednesday evening.

There were lots of coin world “dignitaries” and some special honorees who received awards for their contributions to numismatics. Robert Brueggeman was retiring after serving as its Executive Director since 1995, and was presented with a Lifetime Achievement award from Kevin Lipton.

From the PNG website:

“Bob has been PNG’s Executive Director since 1995. Under his guidance and leadership over the past 28 years, the PNG has helped support the industry, its member dealers, and the general public. The PNG has also been helpful in providing scholarships to young numismatists to help advance the professional side of the business and continue the legacy of the Professional Numismatists Guild,” said PNG Board member James Sego who co-chaired the Lifetime Achievement Award selection with PNG Board member John Brush.

Bob and his wife and daughter Tina

John Feigenbaum will succeed Brueggeman as the next PNG Executive Director.

Cindy Wibker, who recently joined the Central States Numismatic Society convention team after 30 successful years as Convention Coordinator for Florida United Numismatists, received the Significant Contribution Award for her exceptional dedication and beneficial contributions to the hobby and profession.

It was a wonderful event, the food was amazing, and it was especially great to see everyone!

Then, of course, it was back to the hotel bar for more coin dealers just having some fun!

For some reason, on display right outside the hotel bar was this neat old LC Smith Secretarial typewriter and ship’s bell.

After all that socializing, Thursday morning came too soon! But as usual, I arrived early at the show, took care of some paperwork, processed some of my newps to show to customers, and got ready for the anticipated large crowd that had begun gathering in the lobby! I quickly snapped a couple shots before folks began streaming onto the bourse floor.

After the show opened on Thursday, sadly there was an announcement that long-time coin dealer Tim Lapointe had suddenly passed away Wednesday night after set up from a heart attack. I didn’t know him personally but had seen him at many shows. My prayers are with his friends and family.

@keyman64 was one of the first forum members to stop by my table and say hi

This is Bob who is a very enjoyable and fun customer of mine who loves beautifully toned Indian cents. He likes to charm me with wonderful bottles of wine – which works every time! I showed him some of my new purchases and of course he picked out one of the most beautifully toned Indian cent proofs I’ve ever owned!

This is Gary Minsey – he showed me this AMAZING and super rare 1795 dollar he had purchased a while ago. He wanted to compare it to the one on display at the show. He said they were both very similar in condition and he was very curious to see what it would bring at auction.

Current ANA President Dr. Ross and his lovely wife Phyllis stopped by and said hi. Phyllis is running for ANA Board of Governors

The helpful CSNS folks at the Message Center

Security was very tight at this show, and security guards and police were very prevalent throughout the show, especially at the door. This security guard was at the front door and was very serious about doing his job, and was very friendly as well.

I did acquire a few interesting pieces for my own personal collection – this is an really neat double struck in the collar Indian cent that I bought on Thursday. The second strike is rotated more than 90 degrees!

I found an encased 1926 Lincoln cent in a scarce bell-shaped aluminum encasement from Washington D.C.

A customer came up to my table and offered me this beautiful uncirculated 1858 LL Flying Eagle cent that he said he’d had in the back of his drawer for years. I don’t usually care much for coins struck through grease filled dies but this one is so dramatic with so much detail missing on both sides that I was happy to add it to my collection (I sent it to PCGS to be certified). At first I thought it might have gotten this way from being struck on a tilted die since the date is still pretty sharp and the rest of the coin shows little detail, but since all of the denticles were fully struck, I believe it has to have been struck through greased filled dies, including the reverse.

Thursday was soooooo busy almost the entire day that I never left my table so I wasn’t able to take many photos around the bourse floor. My sales on Thursday were more than any other one day of any show! By the end of the day I was so exhausted (I’m sure staying out late Wednesday night had a little something to do with that). So it was pretty late in the afternoon when I finally poured a glass of what was left of the Del Dotto Cab. After things died down at the end of the day, a couple of my dealer friends stopped by so I opened the other bottle of wine I had brought – a Justin Zinfandel. I belong to Justin Winery out of Paso Robles. This Zinfandel is delicious and very different from other Zinfandels I’ve had, it’s sort of spicey and on the dry side, very delicious.

Thursday night we went to Chicago Prime Steakhouse for dinner. It is one of the best steakhouses I’ve ever been to! It’s a bit pricey, but once in a while it’s nice to splurge, which is why we ordered this wonderful bottle of Stag’s Leap to go with our steak!

After the Stag’s Leap was finished, we had a delicious bottle of Prisoner

I ordered the beef wellington which was amazing – I could only eat one of them so I had the second one for lunch the next day!

Here are some of the other delicious dishes that were ordered at our table

After dinner on Thursday, of course we went back to the hotel bar for a nightcap – or two!

Nara Schuch (wife of Steven Schuch) and I discovered we both like good tequilas so we asked the bartender to recommend one. He recommended this Gran Coramino Anejo tequila and it was absolutely delicious! I was surprised that it had a bit of a sweet flavor and was a very smooth sipping tequila. I really enjoyed it and it made for a nice nightcap.

Friday morning I took the opportunity before the public was let in and I got too busy to walk around the bourse and take photos of the displays, dealers and vendors.

PCGS

NGC

Doug Davis of Numismatic Crime Prevention

Daniel Frank Sedwick who specialize in Latin American Shipwreck Coins, etc.

David Lawrence Rare Coins

When I walked over to the DLRC table, John flagged me down to look at some large cent coins, which I examined. I asked what was special about them and he told me they were counterfeit! I couldn’t believe it, they were so well done that it was really hard to tell. Jack Young who is an expert in detecting counterfeit coins was showing John several coins that had actually gotten past the certifying companies and were still in their holders. Jack also showed me why these coins were actually counterfeits, and I can tell you, unless you knew exactly what to look for, they would have gotten past most dealers and collectors and even some experts. It’s very, very scary how good these counterfeiters really are!

Believe it or not, these are all counterfeits!

I also went by the GreatCollections table and took pictures of the coins they had on display, including several HUGE rarities!

During the show on Friday, a dealer offered me these two amazing freshly graded 1909-S VDB cents that he bought raw from an old estate and had graded on a walk-thru at this show. These two beauties hadn’t seen the light of day in many years! One graded PCGS MS65 RD and the other graded PCGS MS66 RB, so of course I just had to have them!

My longtime friend Mike Noodle who co-hosts The Coin Show podcast stopped by and brought me this special bottle of hot sauce he created – I know my hubby will love it as he’s into very hot hot sauce!

A very kind and thoughtful customer friend engraved this key chain especially for me – I love it!

My dear friend Linda Hagopian and wife of my old “How to Create a Winning Exhibit” Summer Seminar instructor Larry Sekulich (who stopped by earlier) came by to say hi – it is always great to chat with her and share a glass of wine together – we finished off the last of the Justin Zinfandel!

That night I went to dinner with my “dark side” friends from Daniel Frank Sedwick and Karl and Joanne Stephens. We tried a new steakhouse called Perry, and we were not disappointed! They had excellent food and a great wine list.

Throughout our dinner, we had three different wines so they gave each of us three different wine glasses, which practically covered up the entire the table!

This time I had lobster and pasta with a small filet, and we had a lot of different very tasty side dishes as well. Everyone really enjoyed their dishes.

After dinner we all had a wonderful Port wine which was a perfect ending to an amazing meal!

With such a large party, we ended up not leaving the restaurant until almost 10pm, and when we got back to the hotel, the regular hotel bar was closed for a private party so some of the dealers had moved to the smaller bar. A couple of my friends were there and we had one drink, then called it a night.

Saturday morning I took my time getting to the show as I knew once I was there I basically needed to pack up and leave since I had an early flight home – I couldn’t get a later flight without having to make a connection. I did manage to take a photo before I left with my favorite coin show couple – Dino and his lovely wife Lisa!

It was raining on Saturday but luckily not too hard with no tornado warnings like last year that delayed many flights including mine! I made it to the airport with no problems, and and settled into my seat for my 3 1/2 hour flight home.

Here are several pics I took from way up high, including several of the Grand Canyon as we flew right over it!

And these are pics of the two historical huge WWII Blimp hangars at the old Tustin Air Base which is located just east of the OC/John Wayne Airport.

My hubby is once again helping out his friends at the NORRA 1000 Mexican Baja race (no, not racing – just pitting and chasing for his friend), which always occurs the same time as the CSNS show, so my son picked me up at the airport. It is always nice to get home after a week of activities and late nights. On Sunday, I began working on my new purchases and of course, there was cutie Penny trying to make sure I noticed her by taking over one of my coin boxes and checking out what all those plastic things are!

So I have to say, this was a really good show, with tons of pre-show marketing, very busy, with lots of great sales and purchases, plus the added benefit of extra social gatherings. I already signed up for next year’s show and expect that it will be a very successful show as well. Most everything at this show went very smoothly, with only a couple tiny glitches that I’m sure Larry and crew are aware of (the various show times for dealers and public was a bit confusing, plus there were no dealer table numbers posted on the website just before the show). The CSNS staff deserves huge credit for everything they did to make this show as successful as it was – thank you very much, we appreciate all you did!

Next up: My local Buena Park show and then the Long Beach show in June!

It's been a while since I've attended an ANA National Money Show mostly due to conflicts, but not having any conflicts and being only one state away made it an easy decision. And I'm really glad this one fit into my schedule as, not only did I have a really good show buying and selling, but I had so much fun getting together with different friends for dinner at new restaurants in a different city! I also found a VERY COOL coin for my personal collection - as you will see further down.

Even though it's only a 6-hour drive, I decided to fly since the hotel parking was expensive as is gas, and because it's only a 1-hour flight. I arrived early on Tuesday and was surprised at how cold it was, but I and was happy to be back in Phoenix as it is a very pretty city and I hadn't been there in quite a while.

Took a quick Uber ride to the Hyatt downtown which was right across the street from the main convention center.

This is the view from my room.

After settling in, I went to drop my bags off at security but soon found out that there was a glitch in our dealer paperwork as the ANA had forgotten to change the location of the security room from last year's show in Colorado Springs! However, thanks to a very kind and resourceful concierge man at the main convention center, I soon found that our security room was in the South Building a couple blocks away on 3rd Street.

So I headed there and checked my bags into security. Since many of my friends hadn't yet arrived in Phoenix, I decided to try my luck at the Talking Stick casino which was about a 1/2 hour Uber drive away. I had a lot of fun playing various table games and slots, but didn't come out ahead in the end.

Set up wasn't until 1pm on Wednesday but I headed over early to meet up with some of my dealer friends. Security was definitely beefed up for this show as I was approached as soon as I walked into the building and asked why I was there since I hadn't yet put my badge on. Once we were let into the bourse floor, it didn't take long for me to have my booth in ship shape order so I could walk around and do some shopping.

At one of the first dealer booths I stopped at, I was very surprised to see a Flying Eagle cent in a DOILY HOLDER - OMG! I have several Indian, Lincoln and even Two cent pieces in Doily holders, but I had never seen a Flying Eagle Doily and had to contain my excitement. Of course the dealer knew what he had and wanted a hefty premium for this piece, but after a little wheeling and dealing, we settled on a price and I was thrilled to put that beautiful little guy in my pocket so I could take it home and add it to my personal collection!

Back at my table, I had a dealer friend, Zachery Lauer, stop by and offer me this super rare 1944 steel cent. Although I would love to have added this amazingly rare piece to my inventory and/or personal collection, it wasn't quite in my budget.

Always enjoy seeing my dealer friends - and James Sego is definitely on that list!

As I was hoping, I ended up finding several pieces for my inventory - these are pics of all the Pretty Pennies I found throughout the show:

Soon it was time to open one of the bottles of wine I brought - I decided to go big on my first day at the show with this wonderful bottle of Caymus cab! It didn't even make it through the end of that day as it was shared with several dealer friends.

End of set up day

That night I had dinner with a couple of wonderful lady friends from the Grey Sheet that I had gotten to know over the last few years at the shows - they are fondly known as The Grey Sheet Ladies, Billie and Amanda Blattel!

Amanda had made reservations at a steakhouse that I hadn't heard of until I arrived in Phoenix called Steak 44 - and then I discovered it is one of the very best steakhouses ANYWHERE - and we soon discovered that was NO exaggeration! Steak 44 was truly amazing in every way - the food was fantastic, the wine was wonderful (we ordered more Caymus), the service was top notch, and the dessert was absolutely delicious! And the great company weas the icing on the cake - we ended up chatting and staying until almost closing time!

I had a bone-in filet with a butter truffle sauce that was SO TASTY AND AMAZING! We also ordered truffle cheese au gratin potatoes along with delicious creme brulee corn (yes, we didn't spare the carbs)!

Then came the dessert menu - each one of them sounded so yummy that we decided to try three different ones, and they did not disappoint! My favorite was the red velvet bread pudding!

This truly was one of the most delicious meals I've had - the special sauces were so flavorful and really made each dish that much more tasty. I am so grateful to Billie, Amanda (and John/Greysheet) for treating me to such a wonderful and memorable evening - thank you, thank you, thank you!

After dinner, we went back to the Hyatt and saw some other dealers at the bar, including Mary Lynn Garrett, so we stopped for a quick nightcap.

The show opened to the public Thursday morning (photo courtesy of the ANA)

It didn't take long for the show to become quite crowded with lots of buzz

Rich/Cladiator stopped by first thing and was very kind and gracious to bring me this wonderful bottle of Rodney Strong cab - which is where his wife works - thank you Rich! I opened it later that day, it was very yummy!

Doug Davis of Numismatic Crime Prevention does a fantastic job getting information out about numismatic crime around the country and how to help prevent it. I wholeheartedly support and praise Doug's efforts, and he was kind enough to stop by my table to thank me for my support and gave me this very cool Numismatic Crime medal.

During the show I bought a "pile" of miscellaneous pennies from a man who had inherited them from his dad and just wanted to sell them. They were mostly low grade Indian and Large cents, with a few inexpensive Lincoln cents thrown in. Included in this group was an interesting Robert Kennedy token that I hadn't seen before. I looked it up and though it's not rare, it wasn't that common either.

I was very busy the entire day, including late into the afternoon. In between sales, I had people offering me lots of pennies for sale as well. It was great being that busy, but I didn't have time to take many photos of the show. However, I made up for it the next day as you will see.

Thursday night I went to dinner with my friends Karl and Joanne Stephens at, coincidentally, another steakhouse, Mastros. It too was delicious and the service was great as well. To start with, we enjoyed this nice bottle of Albarino, followed by a Seven Hills Merlot.

It happened to be Karl and Joanne's anniversary so our waiter brought us this delicious butter cake to celebrate

After I was dropped off back at my hotel, once I again I ran into a group of friends at the bar (which happens to be right on the way to my room), including Billie and Amanda, so I joined them for a nightcap before heading up.

Friday morning when I arrived at the show, I made sure to tour the entire bourse before the public was let in so I could take photos of some of the very cool exhibits, the museum displays, etc.

Collector Exhibits

ANA Museum Rarities - including the very famous 1943 Bronze cent!

PCGS

NGC

GreatCollections

Kenny (in charge of PPI Security) and Sam (ANA Conventions Coordinator)

My friend Matt Chapman and one of his new purchases

These are two very unusual, very low grade proof coins that you don't often see!

Misc. photos around the bourse

Me and Ben

Couple of very cute kids who stopped by my table

Dealer friend from Tucson, Arizona, Tony Tumonious

Rick Snow and his son Kenny

Me and a fun group of YN's - Harrison, Beagles, Matthew Pavia, Jesse Vargas, Ryan Lange, Jack Smith, and Payton Lindeman

Some pics around the bourse

Soon, it was once again time to open one of the other bottles of wine I had brought with me - a delicious bottle of Del Dotto Pinot Noir from Napa - Del Dotto is one of the wineries I belong to and is my most favorite winery in Napa!

While I had several good sales and bought more material, as usual Friday's show was not as busy as Thursday's was.

Friday night I had another very fun time and went to dinner with a different crowd than I usually hang out with. Steven Schuch and his wife Nara had invited me to go to dinner with them, and Steven's brother John Schuch, Jr. who works with Northern Nevada Coin, and Chuck Hayes and Ashlee of Erie Gold Exchange also joined us. We went to Blanco Cocina and Cantina right near the convention center. It was a highly rated Mexican food restaurant and it too didn't disappoint.

Nara and I arrived first and decided to start off with a margarita along and a shot of tequila recommended by the bartender.

Our bartender was a wonderful young lady who enthusiastically chilled our shots before pouring them.

Here's the menu - I had the carnitas tacos which were amazing!

My hubby does a lot of research on all sorts of brands and types of tequila and he and I both really enjoy Don Julio 1942, so after dinner we had a shot of that too!

Our very fun group!

Saturday is what I call "family day" where there are much more families and kiddos perusing the bourse floor. I also have a lot more people stop by who have "handfuls" of pennies and want to know if they have anything of value, or some folks who found an unusual anomaly on a penny and think it may be very valuable, or folks who inherited a can or box or bag of pennies and would like to know which dates to look for, etc. I usually encourage them to get a Red Book and explain how it works so they can learn for themselves which dates have more value over others. And those who are interested in the anomalies and varieties, I tell them about the Cherry Picker's Guide. So Saturdays I spend a lot of time trying to educate these families so they have a better understanding of what to look for in the coins they inherited.

In between these encounters, I was happy to have a few large sales! Then soon it was time to pack up so I could catch my gratefully brief flight home!

At the airport, I sailed through TSA and headed to my gate. I didn't find any regular restaurants near my gate to grab a bite but discovered what they call a "pop up bar." It was actually quite nice, with a small menu of various food items and bottled/canned beer and wine.

Soon I was home safe and sound - and of course Penny was there to greet me!

Next up: The Buena Park show this weekend, then the Las Vegas Palace Station show in 2 weeks!

Dennis Tucker posted this great tribute with lots of fun photos to David on Coin Update:

http://news.coinupdate.com/remembering-david-w-lange-1958-2023/?fbclid=IwAR34jy8Jh2pQPn5K_YgoHfs7gR70ZU-KhvvS_oq1kNQ75alf_R-NcJK6xTs

I am very saddened to hear about this. Last time we communicated David thought his treatment would provide positive results in this coming year. Rest in peace my dear sweet friend.

 

 

WOW! What a show it was!! This was one of the busiest shows I've had in a long time. Even though there were some very minor glitches on dealer set up day, the show was fantastic, with tons of public on both Thursday and Friday. Even Saturday was surprisingly busy. As many dealers commented, prices are higher especially on better quality, tougher date coins - and it's harder to find the tougher dates in better grades. However, on dealer set up day and throughout the show, I was lucky enough to acquire several nice Pretty Pennies, including an 1856 Flying Eagle cent and three scarce Flying Eagle and Indian cent pattern pieces. The days flew by - it was simply a GREAT show!

As always, each January I very much look forward to the FUN show - this show always seems to start the year off with a bang! I got to the airport early on Tuesday, sailed through TSA, and had lots of extra time before my flight so I grabbed a refreshing Bloody Mary before I began my long trek to Orlando.

I was a little apprehensive about my flight after hearing the airline horror stories over the previous few days, but the only glitch was a a 1/2 hour delay leaving cloudy Orange County.

My only concern was that my layover in Houston was less than an hour, but luckily the gate we arrived at was only a few gates away from my next departing gate which had just begun to board when we landed so I made it just fine. However, when I boarded my flight I asked the flight attendant if our bags from that flight would make it to this flight, and he said "they most likely arrived before you did!" And what do you know, I looked out the window and I saw my bag being loaded onto my plane!

I arrived in Orlando with no problems, checked into my hotel, grabbed a glass of wine down at the bar where the CHUBB Insurance Group was having a huge gathering, then I headed to bed!

After sleeping in a bit, I headed over to the convention center. This was the view from my room.

Set up was at 2pm on Wednesday but I arrived there early to grab my ribbon and to see if there was any dealer trading - which there really wasn't much of since the FUN Board doesn't allow dealers to rent pre-show trading rooms at the convention center. So I just caught up with several dealer friends whom I hadn't seen in quite a while. By the time the bourse was ready to open, there was quite a crowd of dealers waiting to get in!

Set up went smoothly, and then I began my hunt for coins for my customer's want lists and jus to add to my inventory. I did find a few pieces that a couple of my customers had been looking for, but mostly found coins to fill in gaps in my inventory. These are the coins I acquired throughout the show including the three patterns cents and the 1856 Flying Eagle cent.

When I got back to my table, I was happy to see these two long-time forum member friends whom I had seen in quite a while!

@ldhair and @spacehayduke

And my very good ex-FBI now coin dealer buddy Neil Ulrich

In the afternoon, I opened a bottle of this 2014 Williams Selyem Zinfandel - it was very yummy and was shared with several friends!

After a very busy set up day, soon it was time to head out to a nice relaxing dinner! We headed over to Maggiano's and had some awesome food and a wonderful time!

I had a glass of bought 2020 Caymus cab which I've had several times and is always amazing. It was so good and the restaurant price was surprisingly inexpensive so I bought a bottle to take to the show!

Neil and I had ordered the chicken piccata and, and after the other two people at our table had received their dinners, the server accidentally gave away our dinners to the table next to us who happened to order the same two dishes. So the waiter gave us TWO complimentary platters of various desserts.

I have to say, despite this minor glitch, the service at Maggiano's was truly over-the-top.

A couple pics of the bourse on Thursday taken from my table when I had a few seconds to breath!

I was able to pick up a few pieces for my personal exonumia collection - a few hard to find penny pocket mirrors and a scarce celluloid encased Indian cent.

I enjoyed chatting with a few more forum members who stopped by to say hi!

Rick/ @Barberian

Greg/ @keyman64

Ed V.

I brought with me a special bottle of 2014 Eighty-One Justin Cab. I'm a Justin reserve wine club member and I received 6 bottles of this special limited edition wine shipped to me in a wooden crate wrapped in tissue paper. I had been storing it for a few years and this was the first time I opened one of these bottles. Boy, was it amazing! So smooth, full bodied, with hints of blackberry and chocolate - I believe it's the best wine Justin has produced!

One of my customers and a fellow forum member, Steve Feiertag/ @winesteven contacted me before the show to see if we could get together for dinner one evening so we set up to meet me and a few other coin dealers at Del Friscos Double Eagle Steakhouse on Thursday night. Knowing how much I love wine, Steve wanted to share one of his special bottles of wine with us - he brought an "otherworldly" bottle of 2015 Sine Qua Non Syrah Trouvre L'Arene with an AMAZING 100 pt. rating! WOW! It was sooooo delicious, it easily lived up to its perfect rating! Steve even shared wine tasting notes with us which describe in great detail how truly wonderful this wine is.

Even though there could be no wine that we could order that would compare with Steve's wine, we ordered a bottle of 2018 Mt. Veeder O'Shaughnessy cab off the menu and, while it didn't quite compare to Steve's wine, it was very delicious (and pricey at $350!).

The wine went very well with this bone-in ribeye!

By the way, did I mention that, other than the extra bottle of wine we ordered, Steve picked up the entire dinner tab! Boy, it would be hard for me to find a more kind, generous, interesting fellow coin and wine-loving man!

Steve, me, Neil Ulrich and Ron Mirr

Friday morning I took the opportunity to go around the bourse floor and take some photos before the public was let in, including viewing the great exhibits that were on display.

This is Steve Fieretag/ winesteven's exhibit that deservedly won People's Choice

Billie/The Grey Sheet is always a delight to chat with!

Hardworking folks at PCGS!

Also very hard working folks at NGC (David Lange - we miss you!)

Great group of folks at ANACS!

Abe and friends

Young page girls trying their hands at the Kids' Zone wheel

I also stopped by the GreatCollections' table to check out the fantastic Stuart Blay Lincoln set that is set for auction in a week or so. Another WOW which isn't even enough to describe these top pop coins!

I attended the Fly-In Club meeting with Chris Pilliod and Rick Snow, as well as several other club members. Although I couldn't stay for the entire meeting, Chris was giving a talk about Indian cent metals

Photos taken around the bourse floor

Greg/ @Walkerguy21D also came by to say hi

Steve stopped by again in the afternoon and I was happy to share some of my special Justin Eighty-One with him.

My friends Connor and Dan Sedwick with a European percussion cap pistol from the late 1700's-early 1800's that they had just acquired (you may recognize these two from my many dinners in Baltimore in the wine cellar of the Black Olive restaurant)

Friday afternoon, a dealer friend Richard Gross stopped by my table and showed me a very cool and very RARE S-2 1793 Chain Cent. I was thrilled to see it and immediately thought that this might be something my friend Matt Chapman might be interested in. Interestingly, this particular coin is pedigreed to Chapman from 1885 (no relation to Matt as far as we know). So I asked Richard to wait a minute while I called Matt to see if he was still at the show and if he wanted to come and take a look at this amazing coin, which he did! So after examining the coin Matt told Richard he was interested. They then went back to Richard's table to work out the details. I subsequently discovered that they did indeed make a deal and Matt is now the proud owner of this amazing piece of history!

This is a picture of the 1885 photograph of the exact same coin!

And this is the write up about this coin that Matt gave me:

_1793 Chain "AMERICA" cent, Sheldon-2, Wide Date
Pedigree: ex. Chapman (5/1885)

Interesting not only for being the first die variety with the AMERICA fully spelled out on the reverse, but also for being the rarest die variety of the four with an assigned rarity of 4+. This very coin was owned by none other than Henry and Samuel Chapman and was sold in May of 1885 as part of their collection by a third-party auction firm. Henry and his brother Samuel were born in 1859 and 1857 respectively and began selling coins as dealers in 1878. The pedigree is unusual since in most cases, merely brokering coins as a dealer does not warrant a pedigree in the strictest sense. It was only because a third party auctioned the coin and attributed it as having been owned by Chapman that allowed the pedigree attribution. The auction sale price was $23!

The coin itself is actually quite light colored for the type, and the reverse shows several planchet voids and fissures as is typical. The surfaces are hard and glossy. NGC has assigned a grade of AU53 to the coin, and my EAC grade is sharpness 50, net 45. What's really amazing is that until now, the coin has resided raw in a private collection, and has only now been graded for the first time! Before now, the only photos of the coin are from old auction catalogues. Up until now, the only idea of the coin's quality had to be gleaned from these old photos, or photos of photos. According to the photo in Numistudy, the coin was only assigned a grade of sharpness 40, net 30.
_

It's a fascinating coin with a great pedigree! So pleased for Matt that he was able to acquire this historical piece!

On our last night in Orlando I went to the Capital Grille with my foreign coin dealer friends - another restaurant with some great food! We brought our own wine which we all enjoyed.

Gary Braisted allowed me to use these two photos taken of him and the granddaughter of Astronaut Alan Shepard, Laura Shepard Churchley and Gary with Astronaut, test pilot and jazz musician Winston Scott who were at the show

Saturday was a surprisingly busy day too. From what I could see, not many dealers had left on Friday and the bourse was still quite full. I had quite a few decent sales before I had to pack up and head to the airport. So long til next year!

It was really good to finally get home to my dear sweet hubby and my adorable chubby Penny!

Participating in opposite coast coin shows is very wearing and tiring due to the long flights, changing planes, and especially the time change. But I really enjoy attending such a successful and well-organized show as the FUN show, finding beautiful coins, making decent sales, seeing my friends, and dining at great restaurants with good people - so I definitely look forward to going back next year!

Next up: The Long Beach show on February 1-4 and the ANA in Phoenix on March 1-4, 2023.

Hey guys, while I appreciate spirited discussions, I think this has gotten quite a bit off topic. Would you mind starting a separate thread if you'd like to continue this discussion. Thank you. ;-) 

Thank you everyone, but especially @zadok! That was soooo very kind of you and I very much appreciate your post. Yes it is a lot of work and takes a LOT of time to put these show reports together, but know that YOU all are why I do it, especially those who can no longer participate in attending these shows. It is so nice and heartwarming when forum members and just readers of my reports stop by my table to thank me or to tell me about their grandfather who used to attend the shows but can no longer physically make it but feel like they've been there by reading my reports - that means everything to me! So thank you again!

Wow, another summer ANA show has come and gone! While it wasn't quite the blockbuster show last year's was, it was quite busy, very well attended, and flew by! I was busy every day, bought a lot of great newps, sold some of them and much more, spent time with some great friends, attended some club meetings, saw some amazing competitive exhibits, really loved viewing the rare and very cool coins at the ANA museum exhibits, and especially enjoyed the fantastic Central America artifacts display which I understand was being displayed in full for the first time at this show - photos of all of these exhibits you will see later in this report!

I did read some negative comments on another "show report" about certain aspects of this show, but I personally thought overall it was a very successful show and after speaking with several other dealers, they all felt pretty much the same. Everyone thought last year's show, of course, was one of the best shows we've had in many years, but that this year's ANA was still successful, busy, and well attended. Most dealers felt that having Heritage and Stacks auction lot viewing off site was inconvenient, but that was because GreatCollections is now the official ANA auction company (for which they pay a hefty fee) so it was my understanding that the other auction companies were not allowed to have onsite auction lot viewing as they were no longer "paying" for this privilege. Since there are some particularly nice lots in the Stacks auction that I am interested in, for this reason and since I don't live very far from them, I made sure to do my Stacks lot viewing at their offices before the show.

As others have mentioned, the dealer day is an important part of a large show for dealers and will occur with or without the host show's participation. And as a collector, I can understand the frustration with feeling like all the "good stuff" may be gone before the show opens to the public. But as you all know, along with auctions and some other avenues, this is one of the major ways we dealers acquire inventory. It is also especially convenient and generally more secure to have the dealer tables on the bourse floor rather than in separate rooms or at off site hotel rooms. It's also a significant additional revenue for the ANA - when the PNG ran dealer day, they charged $500 per table rather than $250 fee the ANA charged. For me personally, it is also nice not to be rushed to set up and get organized, and much easier to be able to view other dealers' inventory without interfering with their retail business.

One more thing I thought I'd address briefly what I know about the theft at the show that some of you may have heard about on dealer day where a case full of Rolex watches was stolen and the group of thieves (all caught on camera) just picked up the locked case, placed it upside down on a cart, and just walked off with it (the dealers had just taken a brief lunch break). They headed out some doors that were "guarded" by a convention worker but they distracted her and when her back was turned, the others pushed the cart out the door. It is believed they blended in with the other workers who were still on the floor moving/placing show cases at dealers' tables, etc. Believe me, we were all in shock over this brazen and well-orchestrated theft and I'm sure there will be changes made all around as a result of this. Even though this was a terrible event and very frustrating for all concerned, I know it is being handled by all the parties and authorities involved, I really would prefer not to have this show report derailed or focused on this incident.

So with that being said, on with my report! WARNINGL I took a lot of photos throughout the week, especially of the ANA museum, the Central America exhibit, and the competitive exhibits - so go grab that cup of coffee or cocktail, sit back and relax, and hopefully enjoy a fun read and pictorial tour of my week at the Chicago ANA show!

I always look forward to attending the summer ANA show as there is so much to do and see, and so many coins to buy and sell, I very much enjoy attending this show!

I left sunny OC Sunday morning, flew over beautiful Catalina Island, and arrived in Chicago that evening with no delays or any flight issues whatsoever - yay!

I settled in at the hotel and went down to the bar for a quick drink and bite to eat. I happened to sit down right next to Kenny, the show's security guard and very much enjoyed chatting with him. I've known him and seen him around at the all the major shows for years and he's always been very friendly and helpful anytime I've needed anything.

He even highly recommended a very nice cab that I hadn't tried before, which I really enjoyed!

Monday morning was dealer set up day and when I arrived I was really surprised to see how long the line was of all the dealers waiting to get in!

While I was searching for coins, I found a few
of what I call really "cool" coins that I took pics of

The 1825/4/1 Capped Head Left Half Eagle. JD-1, BD-1. Rarity-8 as a Proof (finest known) is truly awesome to see in person. It's currently up for auction at Stacks Bowers. Now, I have no "skin" in this auction piece whatsoever, but when I got to hold it and view it, it truly is beautiful, rare, and amazing just to see in hand. Here is only a very small part of the auction description: "One of the most important offerings in the numismatic market of the 21st century, Stack's Bowers Galleries is pleased to present a landmark early Proof gold rarity whose existence was lost to the collecting community for half a century. Its undeniable and universal Proof qualities, combined with the Proof-67 Cameo grade recently assigned by PCGS, confirm this extraordinary Superb Gem as the finest of just three Proof 1825 half eagles known."

In very pale comparison to the above coins, these are a few pieces I picked up throughout the show for my own very modest but, in my opinion, almost just as cool, exonumia collection:

1912 The Navarre Deposit Bank encased Lincoln cent pocket mirror (from Alan Weinberg)

1902 encased Indian cent "Spinner" by Drovers Journal with its original ribbon - I've never seen one like this before!

A neat simple 1952-S sticker penny from Nelson's TV in Palto Alto (from John Kraljevich)

FYI, sticker cents are relatively scarce as, in addition to the stickers losing their adhesiveness to the coin and eventually falling or wearing off, when the Secret Service discovered businesses were advertising on coinage, which is illegal, they contacted the advertisers and required them to recall/remove any coinage on which they had placed stickers.

So after I had set up, organized my booth, and finished my "shopping" for the day, you know what time it was - time for wine of course! However, since we were "wrapping" up our Women in Numismatics organization, I had brought several gifts for our board members and my bag was too full to bring my usual two bottles of my "beloved" wine. However, I was able to pack one small half bottle of what I call "emergency" wine from my favorite Temecula winery! (I asked a wine friend who was driving to the show if he would bring me a couple bottles that I could buy from him, which he gladly did!)

After the dealer show ended on Monday, I met a group of my foreign coin dealer friends at Gibson's.

Of course, with Gibson's wine selection, we had some great wines!

And some great food!

Not surprisingly, there were several other tables of coin dealers all around us!

I arrived back at the convention center early Tuesday morning so I could get some paperwork done, process my new purchases, and take some more photos around the bourse.

Here are the hardworking folks at NGC

PCGS folks were always busy as well!

GreatCollections, the ANA's official auction company for the next 3 years, was front and center and had a lot of activity throughout the show!

John and Nancy Wilson are amazing longtime and very friendly numismatic ambassadors, eager to greet everyone attending the show!

The public was let into the show at 1pm, and boy was there a HUGE crowd gathered at the door when ANA Executive Director Kim Kiick welcomed everyone to the show!

Tuesday afternoon was really busy and I was happy to have lots of folks stopping by my table.

After the show ended, a group of us went over to a local pub, Five Roses Pub, which is in the park just behind the hotels across from the convention center.

After dinner, a couple of us headed over to the Rivers Casino which is right next to the airport and only a few miles away. By the end of the evening, I was happy to end up $50 ahead!

Wednesday morning was sadly my last Women In Numismatics (WIN) meeting. I've been president of WIN for the last 6 years, but after a year of thoughtful discussions and meetings, the board came to the conclusion that WIN had met its goals and felt it was no longer really necessary to have a woman-oriented numismatic organization.

This is the basic content of my speech which I took from my final President's Letter that was just published in our last issue of "Winning Ways" which our editor, Dave Heinrich, artfully, carefully, and thoughtfully put together for us.

I can tell you it was very hard to get through my talk without tearing up and I had to pause a few times to gather myself as I will truly miss being a part of Women in Numismatics.

_"Women in Numismatics was formed in 1991 as a national non-profit organization that provided a networking and educational forum for female numismatists. Members have included new and established collectors, dealers, and those associated with numismatic-related organizations. WIN has encouraged fellowship among its members and promoted education through guest speakers and informative presentations. WIN has also provided educational opportunities to its members by awarding an annual scholarship to the ANA’s Summer Seminar in Colorado Springs.

Now, after more than 30 years of service to the numismatic community, WIN has accomplished its mission and achieved the goals it set for itself. With some sadness but also pride in what the dedicated members and officers of WIN have achieved over the years, the WIN Board of Directors has decided to dissolve Women in Numismatics as of December 31, 2022.

Over the years, WIN has done its best to educate, mentor and guide its members through the wonderful world of numismatics and I hope we’ve left it a little better off. It has truly been my honor to serve Women in Numismatics and its members over these past six years as its president. I am thankful to all those who have been a part of and supported WIN. I am also grateful for all the new friends I have gained through being a part of Women in Numismatics.

And even though WIN may no longer be a formal organization, I’m sure I speak for the rest of our board members, that we will still be around if any of you need any assistance or guidance with any of your numismatic endeavors. In particular, please know that I will be honored to continue to help with your numismatic needs. Just email me at charmy@thepennylady.com or call me at (949) 632-0414.

I’d also like to personally thank each of our WIN board members for all they’ve done over the years to help our organization achieve its goals and to help me through my tenure as WIN’s president. I could not have performed my duties without the assistance and dedication of each member of our board: Cindy Wibker (secretary and membership); Louise Boling (vice president); Kathy Freeland (publicity and member at large); Dreama Hurst (treasurer); Carrie Best (parliamentarian); Lisa Loos (publicity); David Heinrich (editor); and James Motley (webmaster). You have not only been my cohorts in WIN, but you have become my friends and I am so profoundly grateful for each of you."_

During the meeting, we presented Mitch Ernst (President of Central States), Kim Kiick (Executive Director of the ANA), and Bob Hurst (President of FUN) each with a check for just over $3,000 to use for educational purposes. These funds were originally given to WIN by the Newman Foundation for us to use for educational purposes, so we thought we'd pass it on to these organizations who not only supported WIN and gave us free space and booths during their shows for our meetings and presentations, but these organizations also have excellent educational programs and WIN was happy to help support their educational platforms as well.

We also awarded our volunteer webmaster, Jim Motley, with a check for $250 and a special medal depicting the Patron Saint Isidore Of Seville Medal which is regarded as the "patron saint of technology."

We also gave literary awards to Kathy Skelton Larry Sekulich for outstanding articles they authored for Winning Ways. And WIN will also make a $100 donation to the Ocean County Coin Club in NJ in memory of Kari Brower who passed away recently and who was a prolific author of numerous articles for our WIN publication.

At the end of the meeting, I presented each of our board members with a special Yeti WIN mug I had made to thank them for all their hard work and dedication to WIN. As I mentioned above, I could not have done my part without the support of each and every one of these amazing and dedicated people!

Here are a few pics around the bourse floor after the show opened on Wednesday morning

My awesome booth neighbors (who coincidentally were my neighbors a year ago at the last show!):

Todd/PursuitOfLiberty stopped by my table for a visit

Wednesday was steadily busy, and I was able to buy a few more pieces for my inventory. I also sold several coins from my new purchases, in addition to quite a few pennies from my uncertified boxes.

Here are the new coins I acquired throughout the show

I posted in my last show report from Central States about the 1870 J-788 aluminum pattern cent I saw at the show, where there are only two known - one in PF66+ and one in PF65.

This is a spectacular pattern cent. It has deep mirrors and a beautiful cameo contrast. As only two are known, there are very few chances of acquiring one. The second example is the PR66+CAM from the Simpson collection, which came out of a nearly complete denomination set broken up around 2017-18. This (MS65) example comes from the Loye Lauder collection (Estee's sister) which was sold in 1983. The coin surfaced in the Dickson collection in 2021, just after the Simpson collection sale where the PR66+Cam came on the market."

I ended up purchasing the PF65 for my personal collection right after the CSNS show.

Well, the person who owned both coins also decided to part with the beautiful PF66+ piece as well and and I was honored that he gave it to me to sell for him. This is an absolutely stunning and rare piece and anyone who ends up with it will be very pleased to add it to their collection!

Soon it was time to take a breather and open one of the bottles of wine that my friend brought for me - Chappellet Cab. It was one I hadn't had before and it was delicious! (He has very good taste!)

After the show on Wednesday, we headed to Carlucci's for dinner. What a wonderful Italian restaurant, one of my favorites!

The wine and food was amazing!

Thursday morning when I got to the show I decided to take some time to view the competitive exhibits before the public was let in. They had some very diverse, fun and interesting exhibits and you could tell that all the creators put a lot of time and effort into creating them. My personal favorite weas the WWII exhibit entitled "Wartime Change."

After the show opened to the public, several more forum members stopped by to say hi. It was great seeing these folks, some of whom I hadn't seen in quite a while!

Mark/ColoradoCoinGuy

Andy and Chris/Fishteeth

Doug Noblet who brought a bottle of wine from a mutual friend/customer of mine!

Roy Ash brought me this very cool antique hat pin made with Indian cents from the turn of the century

And Ben and Abe also stopped by!

After a flurry of business, soon things died down and I was able to have some of the other bottle my friend brought and which he knew was my very favorite wine - Rombauer Zinfandel!

Then 8 of us headed back to Gibson's for another evening of favorite food, fantastic wine, and fabulous friends!

Since Gibson's is a bit of a walk away from the Hyatt, I ran into this gentleman who was kind enough to walk me back to my hotel

Friday morning, I took time to explore the shipwreck exhibit and the ANA museum coins. Both displays were fascinating and amazing!

Central America exhibt

The ANA Museum exhibit

Friday ended up being one of my business days at the show. I had a lot of customers who ended up buying quite a few pieces from my inventory.

Later in the afternoon, Jerry Bobbe stopped by for a brief chat

I also ran into my good friend Ron Guth!

Then it was time to head over to the ANA banquet.

Abe Lincoln gave the most impressive and dramatic recitation of the Gettysburg Address that I've ever heard!

Michael Shutterly won Best of Show and 1st Runner Up for his two exhibits

Saturday was on the slow side as usual, since many dealers have to pack up and catch their flights around the country. It was raining and thundering throughout the day and we were all hoping it wouldn't affect our flights too much. Soon it was my time to pack up and head to the airport. I enjoyed a nice glass of wine before boarding my flight.

But soon, I found out my flight was delayed but only for an hour. My friend Greg Lyon was at the airport and I was able to join him at the Admiral's Club while I waited for my flight. There were several other coin dealers waiting for their flights as well and I enjoyed chatting with them.

Soon I was on the plane heading home!

Soon I was home with my hubby and my sweet Penny!

I had a great time and a great show! Next up - this week is the Las Vegas Palace Station show, then the Buena Park show in a couple weeks, and Long Beach the end of September!

As always, I really look forward the Long Beach show since it's basically in my back yard and I can sleep in my own bed each night. And this show didn't disappoint! I really enjoy the new hall, it's easy to load/unload, easy and close to park, with lots of friendly familiar faces! (By the way, I finally upgraded my phone to the iPhone 13 and it's fancy high quality camera did not disappoint, especially when it came time to take close up photos of people as you'll see later in this report!)

The loading dock is large and spacious and you don't have to wait in line to pull into the lot and unload. The only waiting is for the bourse to open for set up! While we were waiting, my friend Matt who had a room at the Hyatt right across from the convention center, stood at the balcony that overlooked the loading dock and waived to us!

That's me waiving back to Matt!

Catching up with friends while waiting for the finishing touches on the bourse floor.

It didn't take long to get everything all set up!

The lobby was all set and ready to greet the public on Thursday!

My booth buddy Rich and I found this new larger-than-life gumball machine that decorated the lobby

Curt Mease/PCGS had a booth near mine with some great PCGS memorabilia!

Curt even gave me one of PCGS's 2022 sample slabs

The PCGS folks were cheerfully celebrating a birthday while setting up their tables

Soon it was time to take a moment, relax, and open one of the special wines I brought - this is Reserve Cab from my favorite Temecula winery, Wiens. I also posed the bottle with some of my Penny Lady swag!

For dinner that night, we headed over to a very popular locals-type place on Pacific Coast Highway in Seal Beach - Captain Jack's. They have super fresh seafood and great steak. I had their prime rib and lobster while my friend Matt Chapman had prime rib and crab. A dealer friend from Visalia, Bob Holston and my booth buddy Rich Wogoman also joined us. We could have easily split our meals as they were huge! Since I drive home, I got to take the leftovers back to my hubby who was a very happy beneficiary of some great prime rib and lobster!

I meant to take photos of our dishes but I guess we were so hungry I forgot, but remembered afterwards when we got our "doggy bag"!

On Thursday, I arrived at the show about 9:15 and there already was a HUGE line of folks waiting to get in. It was hard to capture just how long the line stretched out because it curved around inside, then outside around the building and towards the loading zone, but here are several pics.

Our friendly security guards!

And the Legend table was right inside the front door and always busy when I walked by their table!

When the doors finally opened at 10am, a steady crowd quickly streamed in!

Thursday was so busy, I didn't get around much to take photos of the crowd inside. I sold a lot of Pretty Pennies, but I also bought a quite a few new Pretty Pennies, both certified and raw, including a couple emerald green toned Lincolns!

I also found a neat 1906 Indian cent pocket mirror for my collection!

There was an amazing collection of half cents on display that will be featured in an upcoming August auction - the James R. McGuigan Collection.

Thursday afternoon we opened a bottle of Justin Isosceles - mmmmm it was really yummy!

For dinner on Thursday night we headed over to La Opera just up behind the convention center. It's a fantastic Italian restaurant that we hadn't been to in quite a while. We really enjoyed the atmosphere, the food was fantastic, and the service was top notch.

I enjoyed one of my favorite Chardonnays which was so refreshing and tasty on a warm summer evening!

After dinner, Matt was showing me some of the settings on my phone camera so he took some photos of me then changed the background and came up with these "portrait" type photos - it was fun and I've been playing with the settings for my grandbaby's photos as well! Here are a couple of me and my little granddaughter - I'm really pleased with all the neat features of the iPhone 13!

Friday morning started off slowly but soon picked up. I had quite a few sales, then had some time to walk around the bourse and take more pics.

PCGS was busy as usual!

GreatCollections had a beautiful group of Lincoln cents and other coins on display before their upcoming auction.

Steve Feltner/PCGS was really busy at the "Meet the Expert" table

Randy Pollock with London Coin Galleries

The Pirate's table is all set for the kids' treasure hunt on Saturday

The sports section tables in the back of the room were quite busy, especially the Memory Lane and PSA tables!

BG Entertainment had a sports table out front in the lobby area with some amazing autographed sports memorabilia, including this autographed Mike Tyson boxing glove.

My friends Dave and Deanne at DJ's Coins from Idaho are among the friendliest and nicest dealers I know!

This is Kerry Pieorpan - he's very hard working and runs the Buena Park show, as well as a monthly show at the Embassy Suites in Anaheim.

Even the stamp section was active!

The PCGS Submission Lounge seemed to always have folks getting assistance with filling out PCGS forms

John Q. Little's All Time Finest Standing Liberty Quarter Collection was on display next to the PCGS tables - all I can say is WOW!

I stopped by the Real American Treasure table to check out their amazing collection of old certified holders which included scarce PCGS Doily and rare Regency holders with their velvet bags, and even a couple of NGC's very rare black holders. It was fun chatting with Christopher Bryan and his partner Jeff Oxman about these old holders. I saw a 1995 Lincoln Double Die in one of the regency holders, and was a bit surprised to find out the value of the holder was not just 2-3 times the value of the coin, but many multiples of the value of the coin!

They even had an original edition of David Hall's book, "A Mercenary's Guide to the Rare Coin Market."

Before I left their table, Christopher gave me a copy of one of his books, "Real American Treasure," which he autographed for me. I haven't had a chance to read it all yet, but I've flipped through it and it loos fascinating, and I can't wait to delve into it!

So for our last afternoon at the show, I opened my favorite "go-to" wine, Rombauer Zinfandel!

Over at the Witter Coin table they were having a fundraiser for Witter Coin University. This young man, Curt, agreed to have his head shaved at the show - and he had a full head of long thick hair so it took quite a while to get through it! They ended up raising $6,000!

Rich and I outside the convention center by the aquarium

Friday night we went to our usual Friday-night dinner place - King's Fish House. Our usual dinner friends, Karl and Joanne, were on a cruise so they weren't at the show, so it was just Rich and me. I had my usual macadamia nut crusted halibut and a glass of white wine. It was a very casual relaxing evening.

Then when we went to get our car at valet, I couldn't help but notice and admire this bright metallic neon green Ferrari (with Texas plates) parked right out front - wow - what a car!

Sites around the convention center as the sun was setting

Saturday was actually quite busy for me - between all the kids stopping by our table for the treasure hunt and customers, the morning flew by. But by around 1pm, things quieted down again so I took more photos, many of the people around the show. Here are some of the kids (and their families) who stopped by my table for the treasure hunt

James Worthy made was signing autographs, including Taryn's son (Taryn is in charge of the bourse floor).

These close up photos were taken in Portrait Mode with my phone:

They had a face-painting table and we saw lots of young and slightly older folks with beautiful designs on their faces!

This is Taryn, she (and her staff) run the Long Beach show

Several PCGS folks had their faces painted too!

Heather was a great sport dressed up as a shark - she was a huge hit, especially with the kids!

The whole PCGS group!

Soon it was time to pack up and head home to the hubby and Penny.

Rich and I both really enjoy doing the Long Beach show together and it seems to fly by. Rich has been attending the Long Beach show since he was a boy with his father who was one of the founding members of the Long Beach Coin Club, so the Long Beach show is sort of in his blood. He too had a good show, sold most of the things he brought to sell, and bought a few pieces for his collection. We both thought it was a good show and look forward to the next one in September.

Next up: San Diego Coinarama this weekend (July 9-10), the the ANA's World's Fair of Money Show in August!

Wow! this was such a busy show with lots of new coin purchases that I'm just now finally digging out from my post-show paperwork, coin inventorying, processing, and website updating, not to mention a long day trying to get home from Chicago during a huge thunder storm and tornado watch that occurred Saturday evening. The CSNS folks pulled out all the stops to make this a successful show, and in spite of some unforeseen helper issues, from all accounts, they greatly succeeded. There were even record lines of folks waiting to enter the show on the first day!

A few days before I left for Chicago, I had just returned from another show which followed a series of back-to-back shows. The CSNS show was the last one I would be attending for a while in that string of shows. While I was really tired, I still very much looked forward to being back in the Chicago area as I suspected from all the pre-show publicity, this CSNS show would be a very well-attended and active show.

I left bright and sunny OC for the show on Tuesday so I could attend the PNG dealer day on Wednesday. Coincidentally, there were several other coin dealers on my same flight!

I never get tired of viewing the OC shoreline from up in the air, it's always beautiful and breathtaking.

Flying into the Chicago area is also equally breathtaking!

I rode to the Renaissance with a couple other coin friends, and checked into my room - I was happy to see I had a nice view.

I then went down to the restaurant for dinner with my friends.

After dinner, I stopped in at the bar. Of course, with the Renaissance being the host hotel and site of the show, I enjoyed seeing and catching up with several of my coin dealer friends, some of whom I hadn't seen in a couple years. Then it was off to bed to rest up for (hopefully) a very busy week!

Dealer day began at 9am on Wednesday morning, so I went down early to register and get my new badge. All along the hallway from the hotel to the convention room, CSNS put up several great signage advertising the "new" CSNS show.

I also wanted to stop by PCGS to drop of some coins for show grading. The PCGS folks are always friendly and happy to indulge my photo-snaps!

When I got into the show, there were probably around 40 PNG dealers set up, so I made my way around hunting for coins for my customers and for general inventory, and was fortunate to find some really great pieces.

I ran into my dear friend Mitch Ernst who is President of CSNS and was still working very hard making sure everything was ready for general dealer set up at 2:30pm.

The day before, Mitch had sent me a photo of two familiar faces whom you may recognize from the FUN show. They were working hard helping set up the show - Dreama Hurst and Cindy Wibker! Mitch said they and a few other FUN volunteers were invaluable in helping prepare the show!

So all non-PNG folks had to exit the bourse by 1:30 so that some of the PNG dealers could move to their regular tables. Then at 2:30, the rest of the table holders were let in to set up.

After I set up my table, I walked around to see if I could find some more Pretty Pennies, which I did! I ended up buying more coins at this show than I ever have at a single show, and I also sold a ton of coins as well. These are the coins I acquired throughout the show (less of course the ones that went to new homes during the show!)

I gawked at the amazing "Big 4" coins at GreatCollections' table.

I met Justin Waddell at the hotel bar earlier and we had a great time talking coins and in particular, he told me he had both of the only two known beautiful Indian cent proofs struck on white metal. Being a lover of Indian cent errors, I couldn't wait to see them, so he stopped by my table and showed me the PF66+ Cam specimen (which was not for sale) - boy, was I was drooling over this amazing piece! He later showed me the PF65 piece he had for sale and I seriously considered figuring out a way to purchase it.

Soon, it was wine time - these are the two bottles I brought (Del Dotto Cave Blend and my go-to favorite Rombauer Zinfandel, along with a show staple box of Cheez-It crackers!

After the show ended on Wednesday, I was going to head over to the riverboat casino in Elgin, but my Uber driver suggested I check out the Rivers Casino in Rosemont near the airport since it was nicer and closer. I agreed it was very nice, good sized, and had several of my favorite games. I look forward to going back when I'm in Rosemont for the ANA!

Thursday morning the show opened to the public - and wow! no one could believe the amount of people who were waiting in line to get into the show! Yes, they had some backlog at the registration table, but it soon got worked out and things seemed to flow more smoothly and faster, and it didn't take that long before everyone was through the doors!

When I got to the show, I ran into Ben Franklin!

A guy offered me this AMAZING Indian cent proof and I was thrilled to purchase it from him. it's one of the most gorgeous "brown" proofs I've ever owned and is completely cameo in hand without even putting it under light. Needless to say, it didn't last very long and was sold within an hour to one of my customers who was specifically looking for toned proofs!

I also bought a few coins from Justin (mentioned earlier), including this beautiful 1868 Indian cent proof with a rotated die "medal strike" - again, it didn't last very long either!

Forum member BidAsk stopped by for a photo op

One of my favorite vest pocket dealers is this young man, Eric Lindholm. He is so smart and sharp, and one of the nicest people I know! I like to give him a list of coins I'm specifically looking for and he scavenges the entire bourse floor for me. He really is an amazing young man and so enjoyable to work with!

This is one of my most charming, sweet, kind, enthusiastic and gracious customers - Bob Radford. Every time he buys a coin from me, he lets me know how excited he is to add it to his collection. And to top it off, he showed up at my table with TWO bottles of very yummy wine - one from Paseo Robles and one from Columbia Valley in Washington - he even remembered to bring plastic wine glasses!!

And this is Bob with Mike Bureny/Morgandollar78

Heather Boyd (PCGS Director of Marketing and message board moderator) and Chris Demoray (Director of Sales) stopped by my table and introduced themselves - even though we all know who Heather is, I'd actually never met her in person. She and Chris are super nice, and were so very kind to let me know how much they appreciated my show reports.

Another one of my favorite people, Larry Sekulich (my exhibit instructor from Summer Seminar several years ago), stopped by to say hi and catch up. He also brought me this very appropriate wine coaster - which I promptly put to good use that later afternoon with one of Bob's wines!

After the show, we stopped by the hotel bar for a cocktail before we headed off to dinner and ran into Andy Lustig/MrEureka and PCGS's Curtis Mease

Then we had dinner at Chicago Prime Steakhouse - wow! it was fantastic!!

This is my happy place!

These are some of the appetizers we had

While we were having appetizers, one of the waiters brought me a glass of wine out of nowhere. Then he pointed to a couple across the room, and I understood. It was a fellow wine lover dealer friend, Jeff Wuller at Arrowhead Coin and Jewelry in Arizona, with whom I set up next to at the Tukwila show - he had sent a glass of wine over to me which was AMAZING! So when I went over to thank him, I couldn't believe that it was a VERY DELICIOUS Caymus cab!

So I shared a taste of the Caymus with a couple people at my table taste it, including Matt Chapman who usually prefers beer, and he loved it so much that he bought a bottle for the table (the restaurant price was $200/bottle!). But I have to say, it was one of the most yummiest wines I've had in a long time!

Then, when we had finished that bottle, because it was so very amazing, Ron and I decided to go in together and buy ANOTHER bottle of Caymus for the table! It's kind of like drinking good wine begats drinking more good wine!

By the way, and perhaps due to the great wine, I forgot to take photos of the delicious steak we had. I wish I had taken a photo of the huge tomahawk steak that 3 people split - everyone said it was delicious!

On Friday, I walked around and took a few photos before the public was let in.

PCGS folks hard at work

When my lightbulb burnt out, CSNS David Harper was very kind enough to retrieve a new one and even install it for me!

Two very hard-working ladies, Billie Blattel and her daughter Amanda Blattel with CDN Exchange

Isaiah Hagerman/Vamsplus stopped by and showed me an interesting medal in a huge PCGS holder

Tony/Earlyaurum also stopped by

Robert/Rob41281

This enthusiastic young man and his very supportive mom bought a couple Indian cents from me

My dealer friend David of DJ's Coins in Idaho

Jack Smith

Carol, Bob Campbell's wife, from All About Coins in Utah

Ben and me signing the Declaration of Independence

CSNS Message Center helpers, Cliff Mishler and David Harper

Mitch Ernst and his son Sam, without whom the show wouldn't go on!

A few pics around the bourse

As many of you know, this show had to famous Large Cent collections that were "dueling" each other. They were amazing to see side by side and it was had to tell and a very close call as to which one was "better" but I understand the Walter Husak collection won out by a mere 4 votes! (Thank you Curtis Mease for providing some of these photos)

I also found some more very fun penny exonumia for my personal collection, including a set of interesting repousse/pop out pennies, and more prisoner-made penny teapots, another bracelet with prisoner-made penny charms, and a really neat small buffalo pan from the Pan Am Expo (to go along with my encased penny frying pans from the same Expo)

I also bought a really neat scarce Conder token (Warwickshire D&H 128) with a buckled die and large die cracks for my personal collection - messed up planchets are one of my favorite types of Conder tokens to collect!

On our way out to dinner Friday night, we came upon a wedding party who was apparently having their reception at the hotel.

Then we took the hotel shuttle to a highly recommended Greek restaurant, Meze, which was not far from the hotel

They had this huge octopus on ice right when you enter the restaurant!

This is the same group of folks from Daniel Frank Sedwick Coins (who specialize in shipwreck coins) with whom we dine with a the Black Olive Greek restaurant in Baltimore. We tried to find a suitable substitute Greek restaurant at this show, and while the wine and atmosphere was nowhere near that of the Black Olive, I can say that the food was equally as good!

After we arrived back at the hotel, a few of us stopped by the old bar that they had just opened for "one last hurrah" and we found it hopping with lots of folks from the show!

Saturday morning was relatively quiet at the show, though it is always refreshing to see a lot of families bring their children to the show!

Even though we weren't able to get together for dinner at this show, my very favorite (not to mention beautiful) couple stopped by my table - Dino and Lisa Koromvokis!

Soon, once again, it was time to pack up and head to the airport. We had all been hearing about lots of flight cancellations due to the impending severe storm (and nearby tornado) that was predicted to arrive that evening. I was travelling with Karl and Joanne and we all had our fingers crossed that it would pass before our flight, but alas, it didn't. Our flight to OC was delayed, delayed, delayed, then the ugly red CANCELLED appeared on our app! So we scrambled for new flights and while I'm on the phone trying to get a new flight later that night, the representative said there were several middle row seats available on a flight to OC, so I booked a seat and just in the time it took to do that and then pull up my friends' account, all those seats were taken! So we went to the Admirals Club and where the reception reps there can help with rebooking flights. We eventually found a new flight that would leave later than night to LAX with enough seats for us and decided to take a chance that it wouldn't get cancelled and booked it. I then called my son and asked if he would pick us up, even though we wouldn't be getting in until almost 1am. LA is an hour from OC and he was such a trooper and said he didn't mind at all coming to get us.

Here are some pics of the storm I took at the airport while waiting for our flight

It was a very long and stressful day dealing with our flight situation, and we were all pretty wiped out!

But we know we are very fortunate that we were able to get a flight that night as I know there were several other dealers who weren't quite as lucky as us and had to take flights the next day. Personally, for me, this is the most difficult part about attending coin shows, but thank goodness it doesn't happen very often!

And with my hubby in Mexico at the NORRA 1000 race (no, he's not driving the race car, just helping out!), at least I had my chubby Penny waiting for me!

So all's well that ends well! And after a slew of back-to-back shows over the past few months, I have a 6-week respite until my next show, which will be here locally - the Buena Park show in mid June, followed by the Long Beach show.~~~~

I'm so glad coin shows are back up and running! And the Baltimore show has always been a busy and fun show for me to attend and they do a great job organizing and making sure everyone has what they need. As many of you know, quality coins are going crazy right now, so it has been very difficult finding nice pieces at reasonable prices. I managed to buy several pieces, some at good prices, others not so much! I even bought a very tough rare 1888/7 S-1 Indian cent which I was very pleased to acquire for my inventory. I also found a couple very cool Indian cent errors for my personal collection. And of course, in addition to buying and selling coins, as usual, I enjoyed seeing my good friends, having some great food and wine and even playing at the Horseshoe casino!

So, I left Orange County's sunny skies on Tuesday - for noise abatement purposes, they take off west and fly over the ocean, then turn around and head back east. Viewing the coastline from the air is always a beautiful site!

After a long day, changing planes in Dallas, I finally got to Baltimore late Tuesday night, grabbed my bags, and my awesome regular driver was already there waiting to take me to my hotel.

The next morning I headed over to the convention center to do some business at the two dealer trading rooms where I spent a couple hours and ended up buying quite a few nice coins.

These are the coins I bought a the dealer trading rooms and throughout the show

I was also very excited to add two really neat error cents for my personal collection!

Stacks was also open for auction lot viewing

So after doing business in the trading rooms, I took my bags to security and headed to the Horseshoe Casino for a few hours.

I was playing this new poker game called Criss Cross

And the guy sitting right next to me got a Royal Flush and won over $30,000! Everyone was shocked since the odds are pretty low of that happening!

Then about an hour later, I got quads - that was very sweet (though not nearly as profitable as a Royal Flush), but I definitely was equally thrilled!

Later that evening I got together with my usual crew - Mark, Ron and Neil (and one newbie, John) for dinner at La Tavola in Little Italy

The food there is excellent, and so is the wine!

You know the food is good when you see other groups of dealers at the restaurant as well.

I stayed at the Sheraton which is attached to the convention center, so it's a short walk to the convention center.

I arrived for the 8 am dealer set up. There were lots of other dealers already waiting to get in.

I noticed my ad in the show program!

The doors opened to the public at noon and there was quite a group of folks who streamed in, and soon there was the welcomed buzz in the room.

In between customers, David stopped by my table to show me these interesting old certified coin cards for a 1922 Weak D

I always check with John Krajelvich to see if he found any interesting penny exonumia for me as he often has an envelope of goodies set aside for me, but unfortunately he said "not this time."

Curtis Mease of PCGS stopped by and gave me this beautiful commemorative medal

I stopped by the Stacks Bowers table and Wayne Berkeley, Brian Kendrella, and Vicken Yegparianto showed me some amazing coins they had on display that will appear in upcoming auctions.

Soon it was time to open up one of the bottles of wine I had brought - one of my favorites, Rombauer Zinfandel!

For dinner Thursday night we headed over to the Capitol Grille - another place that has amazing food. We had another new face in our crew - meet Anna, a relatively new female coin dealer who, like me, sets up on her own!

Their lobster bisque was one of the best I've had, as was their filet with oscar-style topping. And the wine we chose went perfectly with everyone's dinner!

I arrived at 9 when the show opened to the dealers - registration was ready to go and there was already a small group of collectors waiting to for the show to open to the public.

I took a few minutes before the public came in to take some photos around the bourse floor.

Jacob from Coin World

Guys working hard at PMG

NGC Crew

PCGS Folks!

Whitman Ladies

Doug/1Buffan stopped by to say hi

My longtime dealer friend Gary Galbo stopped by to say hi

A young man came by with a few Indian cent varieties he had cherry picked, including this super scarce 1888/7 Indian cent (S-1) in VG that I was very happed to buy from him!

Friday night of every Baltimore show is our "Black Olive" night. This time, part of our group (the folks from Sedgwick) could not be at the show so we had some new faces. Tom Reynolds and Brian Alty from Northeast Numismatics were able to join us.

We start with white wine upstairs, taking our time chatting and enjoying the wine while our host Dimitri tells us about the wines we'll be having.

He is the son of the owners and pretty much grew up in the restaurant business. We found some interesting articles about Dimitri and the restaurant on the wall.

Then we head down to the wine cellar where one large table is set up for us.

For someone like me who is not a seafood lover, their gilled octopus is outstanding! They even had a stuffed octopus that everyone said was amazing, though I wasn't quite up to giving that a try!

And for dessert, there is nothing better than the homemade walnut ice cream, accompanied by some amazing dessert wine!

Dimitri was once again a wonderful host and treated us like we were extra special. As usual, the food was great, the wine even better, and the company the best!

Saturday was the usual wind-down day, though I had a few decent sales. Then it was time to pack up and head to the airport. I flew through Dallas on the way to Baltimore, but flew through Denver on my way home. I always love flying over the Rockies, they are so majestic and beautiful.

I was exhausted when I arrived home, but so glad to be home with my hubby and of course Penny who seems to enjoy making my suitcase her cuddling spot!

Next up: the PNNA show in Seattle/Tukwila tomorrow, then Central States in a couple weeks!

WOW! What a show! Every dealer I spoke with said this was one of their best Long Beach shows ever, and it was one of mine too! Thursday was especially busy, so busy that we never stopped to grab a snack and my boothmate ended up passing out - more on that later! Any way, this show was a really fantastic show all the way around.

This is our second time at the new hall, and I think now that folks are getting used to its location which is right next to the aquarium, they're liking it better than the old hall.

And the loading area is right behind the aquarium and is exclusive to our event.

Most everyone I talked to said they are liking this location because the parking is right across the front entrance and there are no stairs to navigate up/down to get to the bourse floor.

Also, the bourse floor is rectangular rather than triangular which seems easier for everyone to navigate.

PCGS set up a lounge area to give people some space to organize and prepare their submissions before they get in line so it speeds up submissions.

Set up went quickly and smoothly, then I took some time to shop around the bourse for customer want list items. I also had just acquired a complete set of Indian cents in MS63/64 RB and an almost complete set of Lincoln cents in MS64 RD. Unfortunately, except for the 1877, all of the Indian cents were broken out of PCGS/NGC holders and put into a Dansco album. And the same was true for most of the Lincoln cents, though there were about 10 that remained in their original holders. While the sets looked beautiful side by side in an album, of course it is hard to get your money back out of raw coins compared to what was paid for certified coins. I sold the Indian set pretty quickly, but it took more time for the raw Lincoln cent to sell, but it finally did, including half of the certified Lincoln cents. Here are photos of some of the Lincoln cents.

A customer also gave me a nice little group of Indian cents to sell on consignment

After things slowed down it was time to open up a bottle of wine. This is my super duper boothmate Rich Wogoman and I having some wine in my new special customized Penny Lady Yeti cups!

Our usual Wednesday night dinner place, Cafe Piccolos, was closed so we found another Italian restaurant, Michaels, just off 3rd Street. It wasn't quite as good as Piccolos, but it still had some tasty dishes and we enjoyed the wine we brought. Ron Guth and Karl and Joanne Stephens joined Rich and me.

We all agreed their Tiramisu was amazing!

Thursday morning we got to the show just after 9am when it opened for dealers, and there were already several folks lined up to get into the show.

I walked around before the public was let in and took a few photos. PCGS was busy as usual!

Paul at ANACS

Wayne at Stacks Bowers stopped by to say hi

So did Jerry Bobbe

When the show opened, there was a very long line of folks waiting to get in. And a line quickly formed for the PCGS table. These photos were taken by the LB Expo folks.

I mentioned earlier that Thursday was extremely busy for everyone, including Rich and me. We were both dealing with customers, and I was trying to sell my Lincoln cent set, while Rich had a lot of silver and other items he was walking around the bourse selling. And my booth was really hopping with more customers than usual. By early afternoon Rich came back to the booth after running around the bourse and said he had a headache. I gave him some aspirin and he sat down to rest while I was helping some customers. Within a couple minutes I turned around and saw Rich slumped over on the back table. I immediately yelled for someone to call 911 while I tried to wake him up (I thought he had an aneurism or stroke since he complained of a headache just before he passed out - thank goodness it wasn't that serious!). Our neighbor called 911 and gave me the phone to to explain what was going on. Within a couple minutes Rich began to wake up and, although he was pale, he recognized me and sat up. By then, security and the on-site EMT was at our booth assessing him. And within a few more minutes the fire department EMT's were at our booth as well. They gave him all kinds of tests, ekg, tested his blood sugar, etc. and determined that because Rich hadn't eaten anything all day and hadn't drank much water either, he had become dehydrated. They gave him a couple bottles of water to drink slowly, His color began to brighten and he was returning back to normal. The 911 folks were there about half an hour. At the end, they advised that he should go to the hospital but Rich declined since he was feeling much better after drinking the water. We had also ordered a pizza that had just arrived so he had some of that too. Soon the EMTs gathered up their gear and gurney and took off.

I have to say that everyone that worked on Rich was extremely calm and professional, including the security guards who first arrived and the onsite EMT. And even later that day and the next, the security folks stopped by to see how he was doing. I was very impressed and grateful that help came so quickly. And we both learned a good lesson not to neglect ourselves even though we were busy and preoccupied at the show! So Rich took it easy the rest of the day, and even though it stayed busy for a while longer, I kept an eye on him.

After the show closed on Thursday, we met up with Ron Guth again at Captain Jack's in Seal Beach. They are located right on the harbor off PCH and Broadway and have some of the best seafood around, as well as amazing prime rib! It was packed and even though it's about 30-40 minutes away from the convention center, there were several groups of other dealers having dinner there as well. They also have a couple of beautiful aquariums along the wall inside.

Friday morning I had some PCGS business to attend to and went by their table. They were swamped as usual!

I took a few other photos around the bourse

I saw a separate thread about the "smash and grab" that occurred overnight at the show. I spoke to one of the security guards and he said they are looking at all cameras both inside and outside, and looking into all possibilities as to how it could have happened With all the years of shows I've been doing, I've never heard of something like this occurring. Security said they are considering if someone may have stowed away under a table, or possibly a janitorial worker, or other avenues that someone was able to gain access. But he said they are are a bit perplexed that someone could smash a case after everyone had left, and not one of the security guards heard it (meaning that perhaps it was done during the show but covered up and hidden until later). The security guards are all retired 20+ year police veterans who have been doing security for this show for a long time. They are pretty sure they will get to the bottom of how this happened.

Friday wasn't as busy as Thursday but it was still steady and I found a few more coins to add to my inventory. Overall I was very successful in finding some nice coins at this show.

I also found quite a few raw coins to help fill my raw coin customer want lists!

I also bought a set of 1930 repousse "pop out" pins for my penny exonumia collection.

An old friend, Ryan Moretti (used to work at Stacks and now has his own shop in Arizona), stopped by to say hi

I was really glad Todd/BluCC Photos was at this show, so later on Friday afternoon I gathered all my latest purchases for Todd to photograph. He's been photographing my coins for over 15 years, mostly during shows, but over the past two years, I've had to ship all my coins to him to photograph, so it was nice to have them photographed at a show again!

Friday night we went to our usual King's Fish House just up Pine street right behind the convention center.

Rich and I arrived a little early so we had a couple very refreshing Henricks and Tonic with lime at the bar while we waited for Karl and Joanne.

We love this place as the food is really great and they offer free corkage for our wine. - I definitely recommend King's Fish House!

My favorite entre is their macadamia nut crusted halibut but this time I tried their Miso Sea Bass and it was delicious!

Saturday morning I took time to finally view the amazing Tyrant Collection. I have seen it displayed at other shows, but this time I took more time to look closer at some of the coins, especially the early copper. Wow, if you ever get a chance to see this collection on display, I highly recommend taking time to look closely at these treasures!

Curtis Mease who now works at PCGS had a really great display of his PCGS sample slabs and PCGS memorabilia.

Also on Saturday, the Expo staff was all decked out for the kids' Pirate Treasure Trivia hunt.

Once again, there was a nice steady stream of folks entering the bourse floor when it opened!

I was one of the stops on the Treasure Trivia trail so I had tons of kids stop by to make their guess of the answer to the trivia question I was given. We had so many kids stop by that I ran out of penny goodies to give them! This especially cute little girl and her dad let me take their picture for my show report. She was very good at reading the question and the entire correct answer!

We stayed most of the day until there was very little public left. Then it was time to pack up and head home. After such a busy week, I was exhausted when I finally got home so after unpacking, I put my feet up, had a glass of wine and just relaxed. The next day I got out my new purchases and all my paperwork, and got to work. And there was my cutie-pie Penny right there cuddled up next wo me squished inside my coin box!

As I said, this was an exceptionally busy and successful show - and I look forward to the next one in June. The Long Beach Expo folks really do work hard to put this show together and make sure everyone has what they need - they do a great job!

Next up I have a very busy March - The Las Vegas Palace Station show, the Buena Park show, McIntosh Sacramento show, then Baltimore!

The percentage of dealers who pulled out of the show was very minimal to the amount who attended so no I don't think it had any impact on the show. As a matter of fact, I don't recall seeing any empty tables so I believe the dealers who cancelled had their tables given/or sold to other dealers. I don't know if I would say buyers found "good deals" since as I mentioned, quality coin were selling for premiums. But since I was able to find some great material, and I sold a lot of coins as well, I am deducting that many collectors went away satisfied. As I also mentioned, the show was busy and active, and everyone I spoke with, both large and small dealers, had a great show - but that is not unusual for the FUN show, even when we weren't in a pandemic.