The Penny Lady

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.

Sorry this is a bit late, it's been a very busy week trying to dig out since I returned from the FUN show. IT was a really great show, and I was very busy with both sales and purchases. I worked hard trying to find coins for my customers as well as to fill holes in my inventory. The market is still quite strong, especially the penny market which remains very popular. Nice quality better dates have been harder and harder to find and are getting very strong prices. In some cases, I've been having to pay over the PCGS guide prices just to acquire quality key and semi-key dates. In any event, it was a very active show and from all accounts, very successful! As with every FUN show I've attended, I was very excited to be once again participating in this show as it's always the best show of the year! I left beautiful sunny Orange County for Orlando on Sunday since I had some pre-show business to take care of. For those of you who are interested in the aerial photos, planes take off from the John Wayne airport and fly up very fast to help with noise abatement, then they level off and (depending on winds) usually head west over the ocean before they turn around and head back east (or north or south), again to minimize noise over very expensive houses. There's also a curfew so no planes can take off or land before 7am or after 11pm. I flew over the Rockies, and changed planes in Dallas - they still had their Christmas decorations up at the airport. I was very pleased that I had no flight delays or cancellations and my trip was smooth sailing! Then it was on to warm 80 degree Orlando, even at 8:30pm when I landed! I stayed at the Hilton which was connected to the convention center and was supposedly the closest hotel to the North Concourse. The hotel was beautiful and not very busy when I arrived. So Monday morning I took my bags across the connecting walkway to the convention center. It was a gorgeous day! When I entered the convention center, I was told the North Concourse was on the complete opposite side from where the walkway connected to the convention center and that you had to go down the elevator, outside and walk all the way around the entire convention center (there was no way to get to the North Concourse through the convention center). Boy, I wasn't expected to have to drag those bags that far - I'm guessing it was about a mile all together - but I did and was so glad when I finally arrived at the security room and could stow those heavy bags! Had I known how far it was, I definitely would have taken an Uber! Now I was free to do my business, go out to dinner, etc., without worrying about my bags. I also spent some time on Tuesday at the Hard Rock Casino in Tampa since I basically had that day all to myself. Set up for the dealers was Wednesday at 2pm so I again walked the mile or so over the convention center, but this time I didn't have to lug my heavy bags with me. I checked in at registration, got my bags and waited along with a throng of other dealers for the doors to open! Before many dealers arrived! It didn't take long for all the dealers to crowd around the escalators and the elevators! Set up was quick for me, then I wondered around the bourse floor to start buying coins. It was great to see many folks I hadn't seen in two years! I found quite a few Pretty Pennies to fill in gaps in my inventory, as well as some for my customers. These are all the coins I bought throughout the show! I brought a nice bottle of my favorite Rombauer which I had up in my room, as well as two wonderful bottles of Del Dotto - a Sangiovese and a Cab - that I shared throughout the show. The Del Dotto was amazing, and me and my customers and dealer friends really enjoyed both bottles! That night a group of us went to Maggiano's for dinner and enjoyed some more scrumptious wine! Maggiano's is right across from the Crooked House tourist attraction. Ron Mirr, Greg Allan, Me, Neil Ulrich The show opened to the public on Thursday morning at 10 am, so I arrived early to take some photos and also to process the coins that I had purchased the day before. Me and by buddy Abe! Not long after the show opened, a loud buzz filled the room - it was really great to hear that buzz because it meant there was a lot of business going on! I soon became very busy, and forgot to take photos of some of the folks who stopped by. However, I did get these two: Phil/Habaraca Gabriel Green/Quality Rare Coins This is Stewart Bley's amazing collection! PCGS was set up right across from Stewart's booth - they had a "lounge" set up so customers could fill out their forms without taking away from others who were all ready with their submissions. The day seemed to just fly by, but of course I did manage to have some of my Del Dotto wine, and shared it with a couple of folks who stopped by. Then it was time to head out to dinner. This time we went over to Delmonico's with my good friends Karl and Joanne Stephens and Al Boulanger (foreign coin dealers). We started off with a really nice Cakebread Chardonnay, then had a tasty bottle of Prisoner Cab that went well with my scrumptious Marsala steak and pasta! Delmonico's was very popular among the dealers as there were a few other tables filled with dealers from the show. And I can see why it was popular, the food was delicious and so was the wine! The restaurant had some great cartoon drawings on all the walls Friday morning I again arrived early so I could take some more photos around the bourse and get some more work done before the public was let in. The PCGS table (that's Tom Reynolds submitting coins) David Lange and the NGC folks ANACS folks Tony at Northern Nevada Coins Wizard had a huge area full of supplies in the back of the room! There were a lot of great exhibits this year - here are some that I found interesting: This is a plaque showing the past People's Choice winners (you'll note lil' ol' me is on the list under 2014!) David Lawrence Rare Coins had an amazing display of coins from the D.L. Hansen collection When 10am rolled around, there was once again quite a crowd of folks who streamed in! Once again, the bourse floor became very active very quickly! Steve Feiertag/Winesteven stopped by to say hi Me and my copper weenie bff Greg Hannigan/Coin Cube Trading Greg and his beautiful wife Cecelia Greg also brought over a great bottle of Chateau Ste. Michelle cab from the Washington area - Greg is such a generous sweetheart! Speaking of sweethearts - here's one of the BIGGEST sweethearts in the world - Dino Koromvokis And this is one of the hardest working women in numismatics - Mary Lynn Garrett My foreign coin dealer friend Al Boulanger brought over a nice bottle of 2014 Syrah to share with me It happened to be my friend Karl Stephens' birthday so his boothmates got him a cake and champagne to celebrate! That night a bunch of folks from Coin Cube Trading got together at Spencer's Steakhouse for dinner - left front going back and back RT to the front: Cecelia Hannigan RC, Greg Hannigan RC, Mark Borckardt, Pierre Fricke, David Huang's friend Eric Lindholm, David Huang, Joyce Fricke, Dino Koromvokis, me, Isaiah Hageman. I splurged and had this very yummy steak and lobster tail, though I could only eat not even half of it. And I shared this tasty dessert with Dino Suddenly, it was Saturday, my last day! I had an 8am meeting so I had to pack up and get to the convention center early. After the meeting, I "manned" my table and worked on a few things before the public was let in. I was surprised by how many people were at the show, and there seemed to be more families than usual which was great! I ended up doing quite a bit of business, but soon it was time to pack up and head to the airport. I was entertained by a beautiful sunset as we headed out of Orlando! I was very tired but very happy to be headed home after a long busy week! As always, I was very glad to be home with my hubby and my chubby Penny! That's about it - next up - the San Jose Coin Show, the Long Beach Show, and the Vegas Show!

It's been two years since the last Baltimore show was held so there was lots of excitement and anticipation before this show - and the show did not disappoint! Lori and her team did an amazing job promoting the show, making sure things ran smoothly and the dealers had what they needed. As many of you know, quality coins have been hard to find and buy "reasonably" this past year so I didn't buy as much as I usually do at the large shows. Some coins I really liked were selling for quite a bit more than usual retail prices which isn't surprising right now. I did most of my buying before the show at the dealer trading room and found some very nice pieces to add to my inventory. I also found a few neat pennies during the show, including a gorgeous 25% red 1955/55 DDO PCGS MS64+ BN and a beautiful tough to find 1877 PCGS AU58. I was busy for most of each day and overall sales were really good. The best part for me was that I got to see some of my dealer buddies who I haven't seen in two years, especially the group that attended our Black Olive dinner event on Friday night! So that's the "market" side of my show report and, as Laura put it a while back, here's the "fluffy pancake" part of my Baltimore show report! You'll see pics of some coins, but mostly pics of coin people, local food and great wine. So if this bothers you - no biggie - simply close this link and move on. ;-) This is me on the plane very happy to be going to another coin show and looking forward to seeing all my friends! On Tuesday, when I left Orange County, it was a beautiful sunny morning, and I finally got to Baltimore late Tuesday night. The airport was quite deserted, but luckily I have a regular driver that picks me up/drops me off whenever I'm in Baltimore. Tuesday was absolutely gorgeous in Baltimore, surprisingly warm and sunny! Several dealers set up in a room in the convention center on Tuesdays and Wednesdays of the Baltimore show for dealer-to-dealer business. So first thing Wednesday I headed over to the convention center to do some pre-show business and found several nice pennies - and sold a few pieces as well. I also stopped by Stacks lot viewing Some dealers not set up in the dealer room like to do a little trading outside the dealer room. Security opened up at noon so after I was finished with my business, I dropped my bags off and headed over to the Horseshoe Casino for a few hours before table holder set up which was at 5pm. At 5pm, there was quite a crowd of dealers waiting in the lobby to set up their booths and start the wheeling and dealing! After I finished setting up, I walked around the floor hunting for coins to fill in my inventory and for customer want lists. I was pleased to find a few more coins. These are the Pretty Pennies I picked up at the dealer trading room, as well as some pieces I bought throughout the show That evening, a group of us went to LP Steamers for dinner. In case you're not familiar with this super casual seafood restaurant, they are known for their crab legs, shrimp, and other fresh seafood platters. They serve you a platter of crab legs with a hammer and a bucket and you go from there. When you're through and it comes time to clean up the table, they just pick up the plastic table cloth along with all the crab shells, etc. and throw it in the trash, then lay down a new table cloth for the next customers. Here are pics of some of the dishes we had. In the morning, the show opened up to dealers and early birds only until noon. Many dealers who had arrived late Wednesday began their set up that morning. These are some pics from around the bourse floor before the public was let in at noon. Here are pics of a couple of very friendly guys who dropped by to say hi. Jeff Shumar John Feigenbaum Thursday was really busy and it was great to see some of my regular Baltimore customers at the show. Sales were pretty steady throughout the day, and I even managed to pick up that 1955/55 DDO PCGS MS64+ BN that I mentioned earlier. Also, one of my favorite exonumia dealer friends stopped by and showed me this beautiful encased penny pocket mirror he found and knew I would like for my personal collection, which of course I did! I currently have about 40 various Indian and Lincoln cent pocket mirrors in my collection. In addition to my penny teapots, they are one of my favorite types of penny exonumia to collect. I was very pleased to add this quite scarce Illinois penny pocket mirror to my collection. Later in the afternoon, I opened this super delicious bottle of Justin Isosceles that I brought with me. It is an especially delicious wine from Paso Robles and, in my humble opinion, probably the best wine in that area of Central Coastal California vineyards. After the show ended, we tried a new Italian restaurant, La Tavola, which was recommended to us by some other dealer friends. Even though I am not an oyster fan, the folks I was with very much enjoyed them! And of course we enjoyed this nice bottles of chianti Friday morning I arrived pretty early at the show - these are some folks waiting in the lobby. Before the show opened to the public I took a few minutes to walk the floor and took more pics The very friendly and helpful folks at NGC And the PCGS folks who are just as friendly and helpful Lori (from Whitman) who never stopped running around taking care of whatever needed to be taken care of throughout the entire show! Another very hard-worker and a heck of a nice dealer - Gary Adkins Brian Alty (Northeast Numismatics and fellow wine enthusiast) and Allie Byers (Scofield Auctions and fellow ANA Summer Seminar buddy) Dino Koromvokis, my bff birthday twin, and his beautiful wife Lisa Random pics around the bourse on Friday A few other coin forum folks stopped by to say hi Jaelus and Joe Mike Another guy stopped by my table and showed me another piece of penny exonumia he thought I would like for my collection - which I did! I have several different types of pop-out (repousse) pennies, including pins, cufflinks, watch fobs, buttons, etc. This stick pin is made out of a Lincoln cent (with a patent tag on the back). I was very happy to add it to my collection! Friday afternoon I opened the other bottle of wine I brought to the show, a Doffo Zinfandel from Temecula. This vineyard is owned by a motorcycle enthusiast who displays his motorcycles at his vineyard. My hubby (who is NOT a wine guy) and I and some friends went to this vineyard and of course, he and my friend's hubby went straight for the motorcycles while my friend and I tasted their delicious wines. I gave tastes of this wine to my table neighbors, Brian, and a couple other dealer friends and they all agreed it was an excellent Zinfandel. And in case you're interested, here is the Doffo story about his motorcycle venture from their website: https://doffowines.com/our-story/ "The Doffo family’s passion for motorcycles can be traced back to Marcelo’s childhood in Argentina, where he first fell in love with the imported European motorcycles that were becoming popular at the time. Marcelo moved to the United States in the mid 1970s and eventually opened an auto body shop, Doffo Auto Body, with his brother, Jorge Doffo. Here his eye for perfection was put to good use and he developed his skills as a restorer. After establishing Doffo Winery, Marcelo set out on a quest to find and restore those very motorcycles that mesmerized him as a child. In the years since, the MotoDoffo Vintage Motorcycle Collection has grown to include nearly 200 motorcycles and scooters from around the world and attracts moto enthusiasts and wine lovers alike to the MotoDoffo Barrel Room housed on the winery grounds." And as I mentioned above, for me the highlight of every Baltimore show is our dinner event at the Black Olive in Fells Point with my foreign coin dealer friends! In case you're interested, here is the story of this wonderful Greek restaurant: https://theblackolive.com/history This time, however, was even more special as one member of our group (Charlie) had recently suffered a cardiac arrest where his heart had stopped, and he was celebrating his "new lease on life" as well as his 70th birthday. More on this later. Me and Charlie We always start the evening upstairs at the bar area with white wine that the owners have chosen for us. This time it was a couple bottles of wonderful Santorini. Then we head down to the cellar where they have one large table surrounded by hundreds of bottles of wine from various vintages. This is Dimitris, the youngest son of the owners. He chose the wines for us, told us stories about the wine and his family, and generally assisted us throughout the evening. He chose these delicious wines for us, including a bottle of Champagne (which Charlie bought for us to celebrate with), to have with dinner We all signed the bottle of Champagne for Charlie. These are some of the dishes we had, including the very popular and very delicious octopus! My pasta with lobster tail was absolutely delicious! After we had finished dinner, we asked Dimitris what was one of the oldest wines they had in the cellar and he told us about their1953 Chateau Canon Grand Cru from France which cost about $800. So Charlie, wanting to celebrate his second chance at life, as well as his birthday, decided to buy that bottle and share it with all of us! In 2005 they decided to recork this bottle, probably due to the original cork deteriorating I was truly honored to be able to taste this almost 70-year old bottle of wine and can truly attest that it was delicious, even after all these years! After dinner, we walked over to one of the many pubs in Fells Point to continue our celebration. What a truly fun and memorable evening it was being able to spend time with such wonderful people! So not long after the public was let in on Saturday morning, something occurred that I hadn't seen before at a big show like this one. The dealers who usually set up behind me hadn't shown up so that table was vacant the entire show - except on Saturday. I notice someone had set up at that table. The guy didn't have a case, but had spread a bunch of numismatic items, not all coins, on the table for sale, and he was sitting in the chair behind the table. Since I didn't recognize him, I thought maybe Whitman had decided to rent out vacant tables for the day. However, I then noticed this guy didn't have a dealer badge, which really concerned me because, even though I keep my new coins, money bag, purse, etc. in a case on my back table, it is usually unlocked when I'm at my table, but my back table backs up to that booth's back table and I had no idea who this guy was. So I asked Lori about it and she said no, they definitely were not renting out unused tables and said she would go see what was going on. Apparently, this guy was a "squatter" and had just decided to move in and take over that table. Well, he was immediately told to pack up and leave. I don't know whether he had to leave the show, but I was relieved they took care of it so quickly. I just shook my head at the "gall" of some folks. So I usually head home on Saturday afternoons of the Baltimore show but I could not get an afternoon flight back to Orange County County this time so I got a flight out on Sunday morning, which meant I could stay at the show all day Saturday. Now you collectors may think that's a good thing, but if any of you were at the show on Saturday afternoon, you would know what a ghost town a large 4-day show is on the last day. I understand that it doesn't seem right, but most of the dealers come to these shows early in the week, and by the last day, they are exhausted and can't wait to get home. In my case, I have always tried to get the latest flight I could on Saturday so I can stay at the show as long as possible but still get home to my family but the airlines have cut back on a lot of flights, so I stayed until the "bitter" end. The show didn't close until 5pm, and this is what it looked like around 3pm. Luckily, a couple of my Black Olive dealer friends were staying Saturday night as well - Karl even had the same flight back to OC as I did, so after we dropped our coins off at security, we headed out to dinner together. We went to a Lebanese restaurant that I hadn't been to before. The food was really tasty and the wine was good as well. It was a nice way to end the week! Sunday morning I packed up, picked up my bags at security, and headed to the airport. All went smoothly, no delays, and it was nice to be able to hang out with Karl while we waited for our flights (through Dallas) back home! Bye-bye Baltimore until next time.... Hello my beloved OC! And my cutey-pie Penny! Look forward to seeing those of you who can make it to the FUN show in January! Happy Thanksgiving, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone one of you!

Yay! The Long Beach show is back! I have very much looked forward to finally attending the Long Beach show as it's one of my very favorite coin shows! I especially looked forward to seeing all my dealer friends and local customers. It seemed like the last show was such a long time ago. I know many folks felt that having to follow the extra state-mandated Covid requirements was too restrictive and would hamper the attendance at the Long Beach show. However, let me say that many dealers, including me, felt this was one of the best Long Beach shows we've had in a long time.! I was a little concerned about how this new hall would work out, especially the loading/unloading dock. Also, the Long Beach Grand Prix had just concluded and the area around the convention center was still messy and obstructive with all the barriers, spectator stands, and fences that still hadn't been removed. I arrived extra early to scope it all out but found that it was actually very easy to find since the Long Beach Expos folks had sent out a detailed map, and there was a lot more room to get in and out with. So my booth buddy Rich and I unloaded the car and waited for noon when we could set up. While we waited, we watched the Expo staff put finishing touches around the bourse floor. This hall is more shoe-box shaped, rather than triangular shaped like the old hall so the table configuration was quite different inside and many dealers had new/different tables (like me!). Once you realized that this hall's entrance and parking lot were behind the convention center, I found that the public lobby, reception booths and entrance area were very open and easy to get to. No one had to deal with stairs to enter the reception and bourse area - it was very open and simple. And even though I heard some people took a long walk from the front parking area to Hall C, it was only because they were unaware of the parking structure was in the back of the convention center which was a very short walk to the lobby entrance. I think once folks get acclimated to this new venue, they will find it closer to the parking structure and easier to access. https://longbeachexpo.com/documents/LBE_HallC_WalkingMap.pdf Once I was set up, I went on a hunt to see what I could find to fill in my inventory. It's been hard to find new material over the past year and a half, and being able to search for and see coins in hand was amazing! I was thrilled to be able to find quite a few new Pretty Pennies that some of my customers had been looking for and that filled in a lot of holes in my inventory! A couple of my favorite finds were these two gorgeous high end proof Indian cents! At the ANA in Chicago, I turned in this very cool Conder token to be graded at NGC. It is a very scarce piece with a shattered/terminal and buckled die, not to mention a rotated die! I was a little concerned that it would come back "damaged" so I made large notes on the submission form about the terminal die state of this coin just in case. I was extremely pleased that it came back graded MS65! I also found this pretty Farthing Conder Token at the show for my Conder collection A little while before the show I had ordered some coins in the mail and when I received them, unfortunately the holders were smashed and damaged. It looked like someone at the post office must have run over the package. Luckily, none of the coins were actually damaged. So the seller offered to refund my money or pay for reholdering the coins. Since I knew I was coming to the show, I decided to just submit them to PCGS and have them put the coins in new holders during the show. Here's what they looked like when I turned them in! (I ended up selling the ANACS coin raw.) And here they are in their brand new holders! When we left the show, I noticed the Covid testing van was set up right out front and available for anyone who wasn't vaccinated and needed a quick Covid test. Since our usual Wednesday night Long Beach restaurant (Cafe Piccolos) was closed, we decided to go just across the street over to Outback for dinner, and since they only charge $5 for corkage, we thought it would be a good place to wine and dine. However, even though we definitely enjoyed the wine we brought, unfortunately the dinner was not of the usual quality we thought Outback would provide. We left a bit disappointed in the food and service, though as I said, we did enjoy the wine we had brought! I arrived at the show early on Thursday so I could get a little work done, do a little more shopping and get ready for the day. I saw that the lobby was all decorated and ready for the public! On my hunt, I was able to find a nice group of raw coins from one of my favorite raw coin dealers to add to my inventory. Soon the public was let in and a lot of people came streaming in when the doors were opened! I was very busy all day, and the crowd didn't diminish until late in the afternoon. I spoke to several dealers and they all said the same thing. Even PCGS and NGC had especially long lines - what a GREAT first day! David Lange at NGC was constantly helping customers (their table was just behind mine against the wall). I happened to catch him examining a coin for a customer trying to help the customer determine the type of variety he was submitting. I took a few minutes to check out the Walter Husak collection of amazing Large Cents that were on display across from the PCGS tables. Wow, what beautiful coins! This is my super duper awesome booth helper, Rich Wogoman, who has been helping me do the Long Beach show for almost 20 years now. His father was one of the original members of the Long Beach Coin Club, and Rich is a very astute collector of all types of coins. He has a great eye for quality, and makes doing the Long Beach (and a couple other shows) so much more enjoyable and easy for me! He is also a fellow wine lover and we always enjoy sharing different types of wines between ourselves during the show. I brought a bottle of Del Dotto "The Weary Warrior" Cab. If any of you ever get to Napa, you MUST visit Del Dotto vineyards. They have probably one of the most amazing cave barrel tasting experiences you'll ever experience - not to mention some of the best wines I've EVER had! And one of my most favorite dealer friends, Brian Atly from Northeast Numismatics, whom I try to bribe with good wine to get "better" coin deals was right across the aisle from me so I just had to invite him over to share some of this amazing wine with me. (shhh, don't tell Tom!) Thursday night we decided to try a new restaurant and went over to Gladstones which was right off the water across from the convention center. What a wonderful restaurant! I had been to the one in Malibu several years ago, and this one in Long Beach was just as classy with amazing seafood! A couple of us had their delicious lobster mac and cheese, and I brought home over half of it for my hubby to enjoy the next day. We sat on the patio overlooking the harbor area amidst the sparkling water and a beautiful evening. On Friday, the show was typically slower than the Thursday opening day, but the public was steady, as were sales. I bought some more great pieces for inventory, and had the time to visit with several old customer friends and some new ones throughout the day. The lines were still very busy in front of both PCGS and NGC, especially the "Meet the Expert" line. While walking around taking photos for my report, one of my dealer friends called me over to show me a really interesting counter stamped Indian cent. It was dated July 4, 1873 but it was made on a copper nickel Indian cent planchet which was used from 1859-1864. I loved it and was very happy to add it to my exonumia collection! Also, last week before the show I had bought on eBay this beautiful 1912 Lincoln cent in a scarce Chicago Fire encased Pocket Mirror. It made another great addition to my encasement collection so I brought it to the show to have Todd photograph it for me (though he wasn't at the show, a mutual friend from Sacramento took it to Todd for me). Later in the day, we opened a bottle of Wiens Petite Sarah - to me, Wiens is the very best winery in Temecula! (The bottle label is a little scraped because my wine refrigerator has very narrow shelves and this wider bottle just barely fit!) As we left the show on Friday, I took some photos as the sun set behind the palm trees that line the roads around Long Beach. We went to our usual Friday night restaurant, Kings Fish House, which is just up the hill behind the convention center on Pine Street. This is the night we each bring some of our better wines to share with each other, both white and red. This past year I finally delved into learning more about white wines and have found some wonderful varieties. Karl brought an especially good white wine that I really enjoyed to our dinner this night - a Wilson Creek Roussane. I enjoy reading King's cute and corny "riddle" napkins! On Friday nights, since Pine Street has some great restaurants and pubs, it really gets "hopping" with a lot of foot traffic as well as some beautiful classic cars and other types of cars like this entertaining "low rider" limousine! Even though Saturday was the typical slower day, I stayed pretty busy throughout the day, mostly helping "newbies" with questions on what to do with their coins, or examining unusual pieces they brought to find out what they were and/or get a value on, or just to educate them on where to find more information on the coins they had collected and/or inherited. I especially enjoy helping to direct potential new collectors on how to educate themselves to figure out which coins have value and how to determine their condition. I always recommend these two books: of course, "The Red Book" (which goes without saying!) and also "Making the Grade" which I think is one of the best and easiest resources to learn how to grade coins. We ended up staying until the very end of the show. I can honestly say that I had the most fun being at this show - I truly loved being there and being among all my friends again. It was great to see folks I hadn't seen in almost two years, it was great to be able to talk coins with other enthusiastic numismatists, and it was especially great to be able to shop and view coins in person again. And Expos Unlimited went out of their way to make sure everyone had a good experience - both collectors and dealers - in spite of the complications and Covid restrictions that California has placed on large gatherings. I very much look forward to coming back in February! This is me SO GRATEFUL and HAPPY to be set up at shows again! So of course when I got home, my cute chubby Penny was there waiting for me. She had rediscovered her little green friend and brought it to me so I could throw it for her to chase and "fetch" back to me, which of course I did until she wore out and plopped onto the couch! Next up: October 8-10 – PNNA Convention, Tukwila Community Center, Tukwila/Seattle October 28-30 – Las Vegas Palace Station Coin Show, Palace Station Casino, Las Vegas November 5-6 – Sacramento Coin Show, Lions Gate Hotel, Sacramento November 17-20 – Whitman Baltimore show, Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore Hope to see some of you at one of my upcoming shows!