Melville Coin Show Report...

[dakra]

I've been to this show quite a few times and the last time I went a few months ago it seemed quite empty and there didn't appear to be as many dealers. Today I saw plenty of dealers and plenty of customers. I'd like to say that I did talk to a dealer whose name is either Margaret or Lorraine who was extremely nice and we chatted for a few moments as I checked her inventory and purchased a nice Washington Quarter. I asked her about two Barber Dimes and they looked really nice but by the time I saw them, I had already spent most of my small bank roll. She will be at the Massapequa Coin Show on March 6th, hopefully she will still have them.

 

Talking about the Massapequa Coin Show on March 6th, I received a flyer in the mail for it, it seemed to be all the buzz of the Melville show. Everyone seemed to be handing out flyers... Anyone else attending?

 

I bought myself some BU Washington Quarters... in fact, I found myself two 1934 Quarters and bought them both because one had the thicker logo (the one in which the middle vortex of the "W" in "In God We Trust" is higher than the left and right vortex) Lookie Here I couldn't believe I scored such a nice one! Other than that I picked up a few Jeffersons. I scanned the floor a few times before I made my purchases and then I scanned the floor "one last time" before I left and ended up making a few more purchases.

 

Here are some notes:

 

1. I noticed a bunch of people (non-dealers) looking to sell. I have seen a ton of it at my local dealer but never noticed much of it at the coin shows.

 

2. Gold? I didn't see much interest in it. Someone had asked a dealer about some Gold Canadian sets he had and the dealer stated he couldn't sell them. The customer had stated he has been collecting them for years and wanted to know if the dealer thought they had any resale value... the dealer basically responded that his own might go for melt pretty soon, that kind of took me by surprise as from what I read, people have been gobbling up gold. On top of that, many of the dealers who had a nice variety of gold didn't appear to have much interest at their tables.

 

3. Slabs- I saw more NGC this time than the prior times. I saw less of PCGS but more of the older holders. I saw IGC and was surprised to see TruGrade holders. I don't think I saw any ACG.

 

Coin selection was pretty decent. Everyone had Morgan and Peace dollars, not too many people had the amazing toning we normally see on the message boards. Otherwise there was a little bit of everything. I looked for a decent 1913-D T1 Buffalo and only came across one. It was graded MS64 and was far inferior to my 1913 T1 that I posted here earlier in the week. I looked for a Barber Dime in MS, the first one I saw was borderline MS, the price was fair but I had to pass. As I was making my last pass, I found 2 more (at Lorraine's? table) I probably would have made the purchase if I had that extra $100 in my pocket but I picked up a 1949 25C (64/65) that really was a sight for these sore eyes.

 

I noticed a few error dealers... or dealers selling error coins. I looked at some, inquired about the '98 and '99 type 2 Lincolns as I'm probably going to pick them up in the future but the dealer didn't have them.

 

Other than that, there were dealers selling stamps, paper money and foreign coins and I took notice of the Paper Money and Foreign coins although I didn't pick anything up. I will have to say that I did go with a small amount of money and I'm kind of glad I did as I probably would have been like a kid in the candy store. I also want to save money for the Massapeque Coin show.

 

I guess that's about it. Seemed like a great show, that's my report and now it's time to play with my coins.

 

Dave

[TomB]

Excellent report! Most people do not realize there are three mottos for the 1934 Washington quarter. Even quite a few full-time dealers don't pick this up. It's something I try to use to my advantage. It's interesting to hear about gold, that is an arena that I don't know anything about.

[dakra]

David Lange had an article about it in Numismatic (?) a while ago which prompted me to buy my first one. I bought it for $2... if that's any indication of it's condition. The one I picked up today is MS and I picked it up for $20.

 

I'm not a gold or silver bug but since it's somewhat coin related I like to follow it. I thought I read a few weeks ago about the demand there was for all types of gold bullion and coins, has anything changed since then?

 

Thanks,

Dave