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!

Wow! I'm still recovering from such a busy week in Orlando and trying to dig out! It was a fantastic show, went by so fast, got to see lots of great friends, bought lots of newps, sold lots of Pretty Pennies, and even bought a few penny exonumia pieces for my own collection as well!

So after 6 weeks of no shows, I was very excited to be going to the FUN show!

I left sunny warm west coast Orange County and headed for sunny warm east coast Orange County!

We flew over the Colorado River

I had a 3-hour layover in Dallas

So I had time for some lunch and a nice glass of wine.

I arrived late Tuesday night and Rick and his son Kenny were kind enough to pick me up at the airport since they had a rental car for the week.

The next morning (Tuesday) I headed over to the convention center to take advantage of the dealer to dealer presales. I really appreciate being able to visit the dealers ahead of time so I don't have to take the time to go through their boxes during set up day, and it allows me to visit other tables. The dealer sales were held in a room at the Rosen Centre. This is the walkway between the convention center and the hotel

This is the dealer sales room

The convention center the day before the show starts

And the bourse floor naked and empty - for now!

But I did run into a couple of my good dealer buddies Mark Alvarez and James Sego

Heritage had some fun signage in the lobby, advertising the different types of collectibles at their auctions

Auction lot viewing was well attended

That evening was my friend Karl Stephens' birthday so he and some of his foreign coin dealer friends went to Vito's Chop House for dinner.

One of Karl's friends brought some great wine and graciously shared it with all of us

Then the waiter brought out all the different cuts of meat (wrapped in cellophane) we could order

I had the fillet (and since I prefer it medium, they butterflied it for me). It was absolutely delicious with enough left over for lunch the next day!

The next day set up was at 2pm so I got to sleep in a little and take my time but I still arrived at the convention center a little early. I watched as the lobby area slowly began to fill up with dealers anxiously waiting to get in, set up, and start wheeling and dealing. Soon it was packed.

With my booth all set and my sign hanging up, I was opened for business!

Then I was able to visit with many folks that I hadn't seen since the Baltimore show, as well as check out other dealers' inventory and buy some more Pretty Pennies. Here is a photo of my new purchases (less some great coins that I sold during the show)!

I also bought these neat Ford tokens for my exonumia collection - one is copper, one is sterling silver, and one is gold plated. I already had the copper one but had not seen the other two before so I was very pleased to add them to my collection. For those of you interested, here is the story of the Henry Ford "Cent":

"Help the other fellow" was Henry Ford's personal motto. In 1917, he decided to spread the word through a special coin designed to resemble a Lincoln penny. An initial order of one million coins was placed with the Weyhing Brothers Manufacturing Company of Detroit by Ford sales manager Norval Hawkins. The company designed a die based on a photograph of Henry at age 30 and produced a few bronze prototypes but Henry's wife, Clara, didn't like the image. Henry was 54 by that time and she thought the coin should show a more current image of her husband. Before a new die was created however, the United States entered World War I and the project was cancelled. The original die was put away by Weyhing Brothers and sat quietly in storage for more than forty years. In 1963, Ford Motor Company celebrated the centennial of Henry Ford's birth with a large number of community events. Weyhing Brothers dusted off the old 1917 dies and produced both bronze and gold-plated versions of the coin."

John Kraljevich also had set aside some sticker pennies for me from 1966 and 1967 to add to my personal collection. They may look pretty simplistic and "no big deal" but actually they are pretty scarce since the government bans any advertising on coins and required anyone who put sticker advertisements on coins to remove them or face penalties. At one point, he Secret Service was actually dispatched to help combat the practice of merchants placing stickers on coins and contacting the merchants to retrieve them or be fined.

Later that afternoon it was wine time!

After the show, we went to Bonefish Grill for dinner.

I had the haddock which was very yummy, along with one of their specialty martinis!

Thursday was opening day for the public at the show, and was excited to see such a huge crowd waiting to get in!

I took photos as the public began streaming into the show and it seemed to never end - it was great seeing so many collectors hunting for coins!

Thursday was the busiest day I've had at a coin show since the last FUN show - the day just flew by!

Later in the day I was finally able to view the amazing collections of Stuart Blay, Douglas Wright and Mark Hagan over at the PCGS table. Wow, I don't think I've ever seen such rare, high grade, and gorgeous Flying Eagle and Indian cents!

After the show on Thursday, a group of us went to Rocco's Taco's and Tequila Bar.

They had a huge selection of varieties of tequila all on one wall! We really enjoyed their Cadillac margaritas.

But their specialty was handmade guacamole right at your table!

The food was delicious. After all the quacamole and chips and margaritas, I ended up just having one taco! But everyone else's dishes looked just as delicious!

The great group of folks at ANACS were enjoying Rocco's as well!

Our table was right next to the lake. There was even a sign that said "Please don't feed the wildlife." Apparently, crocodiles have been known to wander up to the patrons for a snack!

My friends treated me to the margaritas and guacamole, so when my bill came, it only had one taco. I don't think I've ever had a lower bill at one of our show dinners!

One of the most "interesting" things I've seen during my travels to various restaurants around the country was when I went to the ladies' room at Rocco's, there was actually a tv mounted on the wall behind the toilet (playing Star Wars). And then when you sit down, there was a mirror on the inside of the stall door so you could actually watch the tv! What a hoot!! But the only thing is, if there was a busy night, you might have to wait a bit to use the facilities if someone got too interested in whatever they were watching on the tv!

Friday, I arrived early at the show and took an opportunity to view the exhibits and take some photos around the bourse.

David Talk and PCGS folks

David Lange and NGC and PMG folks

Greysheet Ladies!

Busy bourse floor!

Me and my booth!

Some forum members who stopped by and let me take their photos!

Steven/Winesteven

Greg/Walkerguy21D

Steven/Sabotage

On Friday, I attended the Fly-In Club meeting. This is Chris Pilliod, the President of the Fly-In Club, giving a report about the club.

Afterwards, I gave a presentation at meeting on the major errors and varieties in my collection. Here are some of the errors and varieties discussed in my presentation

After the show, I went to a dinner party at Greg Hannigan's condo. Greg is an amazing cook and has been preparing several Indian and Mediterranean dishes all week! It also happened to be Greg's sister's and wife's birthdays! It was a really fun evening and Greg's dishes were all mouth watering!

Saturday morning I had an early Women in Numismatics board meeting, followed by our general meeting. John Kraljevich was our speaker and gave a very interesting and fascinating presentation on "The Women's Work of White Supremacy: the United Daughters of the Confederacy, the Ku Klux Klan, and the Stone Mountain Half."

In case there is anyone in the numismatic community who hasn't heard of John, here is just a small part of his distinguished bio:

John Kraljevich is the owner and proprietor of John Kraljevich Americana, specializing in the coins, medals, and artifacts of early America. A graduate of the University of Virginia (B.A., History, 1999), John's expertise on authenticity, appraisal, and historical context of numismatic items is widely sought by individuals and institutions alike. Since 2000, John has been a popular annual instructor at the ANA Summer Seminar. John's numismatic honors include election as a Fellow of the American Numismatic Society and the American Numismatic Association's Honorary Doctorate of Numismatics and Glenn Smedley Award. John has written hundreds of major auction catalogues, including the five-part catalogue of the D. Brent Pogue Collection, which shattered the record of most valuable coin collection ever sold at auction. A former tour guide at Monticello specializing in the life of those enslaved by Thomas Jefferson, John's counsel has been sought by institutions such as the Smithsonian Institution, Colonial Williamsburg, the Massachusetts Historical Society, Monticello, and the Yorktown Victory Center. He has been quoted on numismatic topics by mainstream media around the world, including CNN, the Associated Press, National Public Radio, and the BBC. John lives in Fort Mill, where he sits on the board of the Fort Mill History Museum, with his wife Megan, sons Andrew (18) and Riley (13), three dogs, two cats, and a frightening number of books.

Soon it was, once again, time to pack up and head home. Due to the storms over Texas and the midwest, many flights had been cancelled on Friday and Saturday morning. I was flying through Dallas and it had cancelled several flights that morning so I was very concerned mine would be next. When I got to the airport, I discovered they delayed my flight but that meant I wouldn't make my connection (which was the last flight to OC) so I had to change my flight to Dallas and was lucky to get the last seat on that flight, and was able to make my connection and get home on time!

Bye-bye Orlando til next year!

After almost a week away, it was great to be home to see my hubby, and of course my real Pretty Penny!

Next up: The PCGS Las Vegas show, and then Long Beach - hope to see you again soon!

P.S. over the last few months, I've been having a new website built and it should be rolled out in the next week or so. Can't wait to see and start using all its new features!

Thursday morning I had a 7:30am meeting with Kevin Foley, Mitch Ernest and several other dealers regarding ways to improve the Central States show. We discussed both positive and negative aspects of the show, and had a few ideas on how to improve the negative aspects. I think it was a productive meeting, and I appreciated being asked to be a part of it. It is a positive step when the people running the shows ask for and listen to outside opinions.

Mitch Ernest in particular has been working very hard to improve the inner workings of the CSNS, and I personally applaud him for all his efforts and insights. He is a truly wonderful person, with a big huge kind and gracious heart. Here is Mitch manning the Central States table!

After the meeting, I got to the show right when the public was being let in.

The NGC and PMG tables were already busy

And here's my bff Cindi working the ANACS table!

I am so sorry I neglected to get pics of the PCGS table but it was all the way on the other side of the room, and I just plain forgot!

More folks stopped by just to say hi - this is the Dave and Bob/Watersport

Sam Joseph/ANA Exposition Manager - he is so friendly and always willing to help with anything!

Thursday was again hectic throughout most of the day. It's days like this that make the show fly by - I love it! Also, Thursday night was platinum night at the auction, and a group of us who were not bidding on the auction went over to Gibson's for drinks. I knew Rick was bidding on a couple items at the auction and would report back once it was over. Greg Hannigan, his wife Cecelia, stopped by for a drink before heading over to the casino for dinner and invited me to go along. Well of course, how could I refuse! espeially since the casino was just down the road.

We had dinner at Hugo's Frog Bar and Chop House at the casino which I believe may be related to Gibson's since they basically had the same menu, only less expensive. Their food was amazing! Cecelia even offered to take my leftovers back to the hotel and bring them to the show (heated) the next day for lunch - Cecelia is not only a beautiful lady, she is a super kind and gracious sweetheart! I gambled for only a couple hours and again left with extra money in my pockets!

Friday morning I had another 7:30am meeting, this time it was the CDN dealer meeting on coin pricing. It was very informative. I believe John is truly being transparent and is working hard to be interactive with the dealer community and auction houses in creating accurate and up to date pricing for all coins. He has brought the Grey Sheet into this century and CDN website has some amazing and helpful features.

photos courtesy of Greg Hannigan

An elderly couple stopped by my table and showed me a 1943 bronze cent and asked if it was authentic. Of course my first impression after seeing countless fakes was that here's another one. However, he told me he found it in the wall of a house he recently bought from an old coin dealer who had died. He said they found several coins but this particular coin was specially wrapped in newspaper so he figured it must be something special. This peaked my interest. He also said it didn't stick to a magnet, and when I showed it to John Dannreuther who weighed it and it had the correct weight, my interest was peaked even further.

But there were a couple things that gave me pause, including the way the rim looked with an extra "outline" and the fact that the date and motto were boldly doubled (which could be attributed to machine doubling) but I've never seen a regular 1943 doubled like this. Even though John suspected it might be counterfeit, he felt it would be worth sending it in for verification just in case. Then I thought about Fred Weinberg who was an aisle away from me. I brought it over to him and he verified that it definitely was a struck counterfeit. The elderly couple was disappointed but glad they didn't have to spend $100+ to submit it only to find out it was not authentic. I wished I had taken a photo, but I got caught up in getting it authenticated one way or the other and didn't think about photographing it at the time!

One of my favorite couples stopped by for a brief chat - Larry Sekulich and his wonderful wife Linda. Larry was my exhibiting instructor at the ANA Summer Seminar several years back, and we've been friends ever since, in spite of the fact that it was his exhibit that beat my Penny Potpourri exhibit for Best of Show at the WFM show a few years ago!

Soon it was time for my Capped Cents presentation to the Fly-In Club.

Before my presentation began, Rick talked about penny counterfeits and had a nice display of several examples. He also brought the discovery piece of the 1875 "dot on the N" cent which was created by the mint to catch a coin thief!

I had been preparing my presentation for several weeks now, tweaking it here and there. I hadn't used Power Point for over 15 years and I had fun playing around with all the graphics and designs. In the end, I kept it simple since I already had many photographs in my presentation. I think the presentation went well, though I was a little slow with changing slides on time!

Here are some photos that Greg Hannigan took and allowed me to use them for this report!

Rick was gracious enough to video tape my presentation, but it cut off in the middle (he was using his phone and got a call!), so it's in two parts. However, I do not know how to post a video here, so perhaps someone can help me with that!

I really enjoyed doing the research and writing the article/presentation on this topic, but then I'm crazy about anything made with pennies! So once I get the videos posted, I will certainly understand if any of you find this topic/presentation kind of boring and don't make it through the whole thing! ;-)

Friday was once again very active and again the day went by very quickly. I haven't had such a busy show as this one in a long time, with so many people in attendance. Everyone I spoke to felt the same way and I didn't hear any grumbling or dealers say they had a bad show!

Friday night was the big ANA banquet, with a cocktail reception ahead of time. It's a great opportunity to socialize with a lot of our illuminaries and honor those in our industry who go the extra mile by giving of their time and expertise to help improve numismatics for everyone. If it wasn't for many of these folks, our world of numismatics would be a little less enlightened, a little less interesting, and a little less fun!

We went over to the Hilton a little early, and ran into Abe Lincoln!

Here are our very fun and diverse table mates at the banquet

One of my very favorite people on the planet - Susan Trask, a truly gracious and wonderful lady!

Susan and Kenny Snow

As usual, the ANA held a silent auction with some great items up for bid. I tried to win a few things but was outbid on each of them (which was a good thing since I didn't have any extra room in my suitcase to take them home!). Here are some of the items up for auction.

Some pics around the room

Then the ANA special award winners were announced, followed by installation of the new ANA officers. They decided to hold a separate ceremony for the exhibits on Saturday, so the banquet was a bit shorter than usual. I thought it would be simpler and more accurate if I just took pictures of the program which lists all the award winners along with short bios of each recipient.

(not my photo)

On Saturday, once again, I had another 7:30am meeting - yuck! I am not a big morning person and these early meetings were wearing on me. But this one was my most important one - it was our Women In Numismatics meeting and as president, I plan a few weeks ahead of time what our agenda will be and do a lot of follow up with various folks. We had a long agenda for this meeting since next year we are celebrating "The Year of Women in Numismatics" which coincides with the 100th anniversary of women's right to vote. Throughout the year we will be holding special presentations, raffles, door prizes, give-aways, etc. to help promote numismatics to women. We are also doing a big push to involve more young women in WIN by giving all young women who attend the ANA Summer Seminar free memberships for a year. We already have several guest speakers lined up such as John Kraljevich, Ron Guth, and Roger Burdette to give presentations at the three shows WIN holds meetings - FUN, CSNS, and WFM. I am very excited to be a part of this special year for Women In Numismatics!

Our board hard at work!

Dreama Hurst tallying up our raffle receipts

We had a very fruitful board meeting, followed by our general meeting with Mel Wacks who was our guest speaker. Mel is Director of the Jewish-American Hall of Fame, and spoke about women on their commemorative medals.

I then headed back to my table and, even though I fielded a lot of questions about the value of handfuls of old generic wheat pennies people had inherited, I had quite a few sales and suprisingly found Saturday to be surprisingly busy. I even ran into good old Abe again!

And these adorable young ones with their parents stopped by to take a look at my Pretty Pennies!

When I had a break, I went over to the other side of the room to see which exhibits had won. I took photos of most of the winners and of the ones I enjoyed viewing.

Soon it was time to pack up and head home. Even though it was a very busy week, it went by so fast and was very successful and fun! When I finally boarded the plane and sat in my seat, I felt exhausted by very satisfied!

Bye-bye crazy Chicago for now....

Hello beautiful Orange County!

My hubby is taking care of some things at our place in Lake Havasu so he wasn't home to greet me, but of course my sweet Pretty Penny sure was!

Next up: Long Beach in a couple weeks, then Buena Park and PNNA Portland in October!

I was anticipating that this Long Beach show, like other June Long Beach shows, would be on the slow side, but I was pleasantly surprised to find overall it was quite a busy show with both abundant coins to buy and very active sales.

As usual, I arrived at the loading dock Wednesday morning, unloaded my car at the bottom of the ramp, and me and my booth mate Rich then pushed the loaded cart up the ramp to wait for the noon setup to begin.

With two booth helpers, set up went smoothly and quickly, and soon vest pocket dealers were stopping by my table showing me lots of Pretty Pennies.

My bff Cindi stopped by to say hi. She had just bought this moose puzzle for her sister.

It wasn't long before my good friend Victor and his brother-in-law Clark who just flew in from New Zealand came by my table. He flew to the United States just to pick up some coins, and submit some others to PCGS for show grading. Yes, he is a very passionate numismatist! And they even brought me a nice bottle of Australian wine.

We opened that bottle of wine and shared it together - it was very tasty and we all enjoyed it immensely.

After the show, we went to our usual Wednesday night spot for dinner, Cafe Piccolos, with my long-time foreign coin dealer friends, Karl and Joanne Stephens, and my dear friend Ron Guth, as well as my boothmate Rich! We brought a few bottles of wine to share and had a really nice evening catching up with each other!

I ordered the exact same thing I order every time, the goat cheese chicken and Caesar salad, which was as good as ever! Then we shared the tiramisu for dessert!

The next morning I arrived at the show a little early so I could stop by some dealer tables to see if I could fill some want lists.

I stopped by to see a dealer who I had bought several pieces of penny exonumia from over the years. We had talked a few shows ago about my capped cent collection and he mentioned that he had quite a collection of original capped cents that he had acquired from a dealer who bought them directly from Louis Werner, the maker of the capped cents. I asked him at that time if he wanted to part with them and he told me he would think about it. Well, he brought the collection to the show and we ended up working out a deal for all of them. The collection included to scarce Joe Louis pieces, as well as several rare Santa Claus pieces in their original Christmas card holders. Also, there are several silver-plated pieces and others with attached bezels to be worn as jewelry.

I'm just so thrilled to have add all these pieces to my capped cent collection!

In case you're interested in learning more about Capped Cents, here's the article I wrote which appeared in the Numismatist in April:  

https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/80630/spread/50

Also included in this collection were two sports-related capped cents that I had never seen before but I thought they were so detailed and interesting that I decided to buy them as well. I'm hoping to learn more about them, what they were made for, etc. They were made in the 1960's so if any of you have more info, please let me know.

After I bought the capped cents deal, that dealer's wife came by my table and gave me this cute little mouse holding a penny!

When the show opened on Thursday, there seemed to be an endless stream of people coming to the show. For me and most of the dealers I spoke with were pleasantly surprised that the show was very busy most of Thursday.

Todd came over to my table to show me this beautiful glass token from the 1892 Columbian Expo that he bought at the show. I have never seen a glass token like this before. He thought it would make an interesting photographic subject, and he was right!

After the show on Thursday we headed to our usual Thursday night restaurant - Naple's Ribs! Victor and Clark had heard us talk so much about how good the ribs are that they joined us as well!

Friday started out much more slowly than Thursday but soon became steadily busy. I had several regular customers come by and even some YNs like this very adorable young lady!

And this cute boy and his mom

Also, Dave99b came by and showed me his 1929 1/4 dollar he picked up at the show

And John at CN Numismatics and I shared some of my Rombauer Zinfandel at the Central States show, so he was very gracious and gave me a bottle at the show - thank you John!

Here are a few of the amazing proofs from the EMS Collection that will be up for sale at the Stack's auction in August!

Me and my group are very much creatures of habit because after the show on Friday, we went to our usual Friday night restaurant - King's Fish House which is just behind the convention center on Pine Street and has the most amazing macadamia nut crusted halibut! They also have these silly riddle napkins.

We all brought a bottle of wine to share, though we must be slowing down in our old age since we seem to only drink about half of each bottle these days!

This is the halibut - it's so yummy that I get it every time, as does half the table!

Me and my booth mate, Rich - his wife refers to me as his "show wife"!

The rest of our group!

Saturday was pretty crowded with lots of families, scouts and other YN's, but it was slow sales-wise, as expected.

Me, a little worn out, on our final day of the show!

I made my usual rounds with the grading services and they were busy as usual!

After picking up their coins, my New Zealand pals needed to head out to the airport for their long trip home. And they even brought me ANOTHER bottle of Australian wine, this time a very nice cab! Let me just say a little something about Victor. I've been working with him for several years now, helping him put together registry sets. Earlier this year his toned set of Indian cents became the all-time finest, and one of his requirements was that every one of them had to be purchased from me! Wow, I was extremely honored. And Victor is such a delight to deal with, always trusting my judgment in the coins I chose, and making it very easy for me to help him. It's truly been an honor and pleasure for me helping Victor with his collections! And I can see why Victor brought Clark with him, he's a wonderful side-kick! Gentlemen.... until next time!

So that's about it. Overall, it turned out to be a good show for me, I'd probably give it a B. I realize my experience can be very different from other dealers, but since Long Beach is close to my home, I have a lot of local customers who help make my show even more successful.

And as usual, my hubby was waiting for me when I arrived home - I am always grateful that he is there to help me unload all my heavy bags at the end of a show. And then of course there's my sweet Penny who just lays there and watches all the commotion, then goes back to sleep!

Next up: The San Diego Coinarama show July 13-14, then the ANA in Rosemont Chicago August 13-17!