My Lakeland show experience and purchases

[HCumberdale]

First time at the Collectorama show, went Saturday only and showed up late due to picking up friends who wanted to go see a coin show for their first time. I quickly located one dealer who I feel overpays me for common material and today was no exception. Normally this dealer has nothing that interests me but today he had the following dime which he offered to me for $10. I couldn't pass that up!

 

 

Not too long after that I had a good chat with a dealer who had a counterfeit 1795 bust dollar in a counterfeit PCGS slab. To be perfectly honest I couldn't tell the coin was counterfeit but I did recognize the bad slab due to the inconsistent thin spaces of the barcode, which I learned about from a recent post by brg5658. Thanks to this board for increasing my knowledge! Turns out the dealer was out $7500 and had no recourse due to having purchased it from a member of the public.

 

I sold some more material to a few other dealers and then came across this fun coin. What attracted me first was the odd slab. After a look at the coin I figured it was worth my $20. I actually agree with the FBL designation, MS66…well not so much The slab itself is really odd, 3 pieces of acrylic glued together and then hand tooled to create a beveled edge and grooves on the side. I have no idea why someone would take the time to do this.

 

 

After this purchase I sold some nicer foreign pieces including a 1952 British West Africa 6 pence of which supposedly only 167 pieces survived melting. My piece had a bunch of horrible carbon spots, which while not uncommon for the issue, really made the coin unattractive. I sold the piece for $100 and considering I paid 10 cents I’m not complaining. I might have gotten a little more on Ebay, but there are other (better) examples that have been there for some time and keep getting relisted.

 

My final purchase was the highlight of the show for me. I have been looking for an attractively toned 1949-S Franklin half for my type set, and have been having some trouble finding something that I loved. Well I may be satisfied now even though its not a 49-S. I absolutely love the orange mint set toning on this 1948 PCGS MS65 FBL and couldn’t walk away from the coin. The reverse color was hard to capture in pictures but it’s more of a burnt mustard color I find really appealing. The toning on the reverse looks thick enough for me to pick off with my fingernail! Also in regards to the FBL designation both the top and bottom bell lines are complete although my pictures don’t show them at all! This dealer also had a twin quarter from the same mint set, but it was not as attractive to me so I passed. $175 was a tiny bit more than I wanted to spend, but I couldn't walk away and so ponied up. I do think it was a fair price.

 

 

Our friends picked up a confederate note that they wanted to frame and a couple of older Venezuelan coins (his home country). They said they had a lot of fun and want to come to more shows in the future.

 

So, a great show for me – picked up some nice coins, expanded my knowledge, sold some tokens and foreign I bought right and made money on…who could ask for more?

 

[Neko]

Nice report and pick-ups. Sounds like a great day.

[mkman123]

story of the counterfeit slab is scary......makes CAC coins seem more desirable or NGC coins as I haven't heard of any fake NGC slabs just fake PCGS slabs

[CoinPulsive PCM]

The 1949 dime has some nice toning! The 1948 Franklin is great looking too. I agree with Mkman, counterfeit PCGS slabs are something that makes me nervous! I read that forum post also and his info about counterfeit slabs was an eyeopener and it was educational.

All those coins are great pick ups!

-Dave

[JOBESSI]

Great read! Thanks!