Coin Show Report - White Plains, NY

[DaveG]

This show is a three-day show and is held four times a year (Oct., Nov., Jan. and April). It's held at the Westchester County Center and features either 100 or 160 dealers, depending on whether they're upstairs or downstairs. Usually about 25%-35% of the dealers are stamp dealers, though. The biggest news for me at this show was that they're moving the Thanksgiving weekend show to the Rye Town Hilton in Rye Brook, NY and changing the dates of the April show to March 24-26 (the Jan and March shows are expected to be in the Westchester County Center).

 

It was raining fairly heavily this morning, so after suffering through the resulting slow traffic, I was pleased to see that the show was well attended. At times, it was even hard to get down the aisles. I felt that the increasing number of coin shows is continuing to make inroads into existing shows as a couple of larger dealers had about half their usual inventory and a missing person or two, which suggested they were at another show.

 

There was the usual situation at this show - lots of Morgans and Peace dollars and classic commems and lots of generic US and foreign gold. Bust halves seemed to be in short supply, as were Seated Liberty and mid-teens and twenties Mercuries and Walkers. I've been keeping my eye out for slabbed 1921 (and D and S) Mercuries and Walkers. I saw exactly one each 1921-D Mercury and 1921-D Walker, both NGC, one F-12 and the other F-15. One dealer told me: "I used to always stock these coins in slabs, but over the past couple of years, the supply of slabbed key dates ('21 Mercuries and Walkers, 1877 Indian Cents, 1909-S VDB Lincoln cents, etc.) have dried up and the prices are very, very strong."

 

As far as better-date gold, I saw a couple of old tenor half eagles and one old tenor quarter eagle and one Classic quarter eagle, that I recall. There was exactly one PCGS or NGS-slabbed pre-Civil War O-mint gold piece, an 1843-O small date quarter eagle in NGC-45 (which I bought) and no Type I double eagles. I did see a couple of C- or D-mint half eagles, though.

 

I did happen to see two uncommon S-mint quarter eagles, though: an 1875-S in an ANACS-50 slab and an 1876-S in a PCGS-55 slab. The San Francisco Mint didn't produce that many quarter eagles and stopped minting them entirely in 1879. The 1875-S had a mintage of 11,600 and the 1876-S had a mintage of 5,000. Doug Winter, in an August 2000 article said that about 200-225 of the 1875-S quarter eagle were known, while of the 1876-S, he said that it is "a more available coin than its tiny mintage would suggest."

 

Although I don't really collect quarter eagles, I keep an eye out for the post-Civil War Coronet issues, since I don't usually see them. In fact, the mintages for the coins from the 1880s and 1890s are pretty small and the price guides say they're very affordable, but when was the last time you saw one? (I know, I know: they're inexpensive because no one collects them!)

 

What made the 1875-S quarter eagle even more interesting is that the coin is toned quite red - it looked more like a new copper cent than it did a gold coin!

 

Lastly, just for fun, I took a look at the chop-marked Trade dollars that I saw last week at Parsippany. This time, I had the time to look at them carefully and I picked out a nice 1875-S Trade Dollar with about a dozen chop marks. Cool! It's my first Trade Dollar!

[michael]

 

great true collector report and an easy read as your writing skills are excellent

 

keep them coming

[Hoot]

Great report Dave! Very interesting perspectives on all.

 

Hoot