Coin Show Report - Baltimore

[DaveG]

I went to Baltimore today. Normally, I would go on Friday, but I couldn't this year. I took the train from Newark, NJ to Baltimore and then took the light rail to the convention center. When I got off the light rail, I followed the crowd of middle-aged white guys and learned something new. Instead of walking the length of the Convention Center on the (cold) sidewalk, we entered the Convention Center at the nearest entrance, went up to the 3rd floor and then walked the length of the (warm) convention center to get to the coin show! What a concept!!

 

Baltimore is a big show - it's really disorientingly large. Just walking the entire bourse takes hours; I can't imagine what the show will be like when they add the third hall in March. (But I'm looking forward to it!) With the third hall, the show will occupy as much space as ANA did in 2003 - not only that, but all the space that was devoted to displays and clubs will be devoted to the bourse!

 

There wasn't just a "buzz" of activity, there was an actual "din"! It looked like a lot of business was getting done. As others have no doubt said, there was an absence of nicer material in dealer's cases. I suspect that much of the nicer material was actually "behind the table", waiting to go home to want list customers, though. Several dealers commented that they were doing a lot of selling, but it was hard to buy any nice material.

 

I thought that floor activity was brisk. It was never hard to get down the aisles, but frequently there were one or two people in front of me at a dealer's table. Many dealers started packing up between lunch time and about 3:00 p.m., though.

 

The usual "stuff" (commoner-date BU Morgans, Walkers, commems, etc.) was in ample supply; scarcer coins were harder to find. One thing that did strike me though, was that I saw at least two Capped Head half eagles from the 1820s - these are genuinely uncommon coins; I don't think I've ever seen them at a show before. There wasn't a lot of Liberty Seated material around, particularly the pre-1853 coins. I did see a lot of Bust dollars (including slabbed pieces) - these coins must have hit their price ceiling, because I saw a lot of nice ones (VF+ and XF), but they were too rich for me. I did not see a whole lot of Seated dollars, though.

 

I had a brief chat with njcoincrank (who looked a bit tired, I have to say - he must have had a full week); as usual, he had some museum quality things with him, including a possibly unique Bryan dollar with a gold dollar (1853) inset into one side and a Bryan dollar with a man's name engraved on it (presentation piece?). Delaware Valley had a Bryan dollar "love token". I only looked at it in the case, so I didn't get to see the love token side.

 

I had a nice visit with dahlonega and Al Adams at the Gold Rush Gallery table; their inventory of southern gold was rather depleted. They were "reduced" to selling some (really nice) foreign gold!

 

ANACS was still giving free verbal grading opinions, although there was a copy of a letter (signed by James Taylor) at their table explaining his decision for ANACS not to offer free verbal opinions anymore (I read it while I was in line for an opinion!), so I don't know if they'll be offering opinions anymore - I didn't get a chance to ask.

 

I did not see any sample slabs being given out.

 

I feel like I did a lot of running around today, but not much organized looking (if you know what I mean).

 

Among the cool things I saw: Last Christmas, my wife gave me a copy of Slabaugh's Confederate States Paper Money. In it, he has a chapter on the South's "cotton economy" which includes the story of Confederate bonds payable in either cotton or coin. He says that the most famous of these bonds are those issued by French banker Emile Erlanger in the denominations of 100, 200, 500 and 1,000 pounds sterling. He includes an illustration of the rather handsome Bond, which was printed in Europe. I found one at the show today, a 1000 pound sterling bond with 37 or the 40 coupons attached. The dealer wanted $1250 for it, however; and said that the lower denominations were about $700 or so. (I guess they're pretty popular!)

 

I've been looking at Broken Bank Notes (issued by state-chartered banks before the Civil War) for about a year or so, to compliment my interest in 19th century commercial history. Many broken banknote collectors seem to prefer unissued notes, since they're in uncirculated condition, but I've been looking for notes that actually circulated. Today I found a dealer with a lot of circulated notes, but none from New Orleans (my personal favorite). He had South Caroline, Georgia, Tennessee, etc., by no New Orleans. After a certain amount of searching, I found a dealer who had a $100 banknote from the Canal Bank (New Orleans Canal and Banking Company) that was dated (Oct. 1st, 1845) and numbered, but not signed, so I think that it was readied for issue, but not actually issued. Thinking it was the best I was going to do today, I bought it.

 

Next, I was looking for no-motto gold, preferebly southern. I saw a decent amount of Charlotte and Dahlonega gold, but little New Orleans gold. So, as a "consolation prize" I got two Philly half eagles, an 1850 in XF-45 and an 1856 in AU-50. Interestingly, half eagles were minted in Philly, Charlotte and Dahlonega in 1850; and, (although mintages don't mean much in terms of suggesting survivorship for these coins), mintage for the P-mint was 64,491, compared to 63,591 for the C-mint and 39,036 for the D-mint. According to the September Grey Sheet, Bid for these coins in XF is $435 for the P-mint, compared to $1700 for the C-mint and $1800 for the D-mint. (Sounds like the P-mint might be a bit of a bargain, doesn't it?) By the way, no-motto eagles were pretty thin on the ground and Type I double eagles were even thinner on the ground.

 

Finally, today's high point was my visit to ANACS. I had inherited a very pretty 1900 half eagle from my father a few years ago. I had looked at it when I got it, but recently, being more knowledgeable about gold now, I looked at it again and thought "This is a really nice coin. I wonder if it's an AU-58, an MS-63 or a counterfeit?" So, I brought it with me for ANACS to look at. They had two graders today. The first guy looked at it carefully for a minute or so, and then handed it to his partner. I thought "Uh Oh, it's a fake." But, instead, the second guy handed it back to the first, who said "We think it's between a -63 and a -64!" You could have knocked me over with a feather! What a nice surprise! I may have to submit this coin for slabbing someday!

 

All-in-all, today was a very good show; it was quite busy and there were lots of coins and other things to see and buy and lots of people to talk to. I really encourage you to attend if you llive within 500 miles of the show and don't go to FUN!

[HaydenTubbs]

Great post Dave,I always enjoy reading show reports.Looks like you picked up some nice coins,any pictures? Good luck with your obsolete note collection.I just auctioned my meager holdings on eBay this past week,but I definately enjoyed them when I was still the owner.

 

Hayden

[IGWT]

Thanks, Dave. Your report along with Goose's are the next best thing to being there.

[DaveG]

Hayden,

 

Unfortunately, I'm technologically challenged, so no pictures. Sorry.

 

So far, I only have three Broken banknotes, so I'm not sure it's fair to call it a "collection" just yet!

[michael]

I did see a lot of Bust dollars (including slabbed pieces) - these coins must have hit their price ceiling, because I saw a lot of nice ones (VF+ and XF), but they were too rich for me.

 

yea and all most all where ugly pigs and also most all 99% where large eagle

 

go try to find a decent eye appeal small eaglr choice vf coin they are not out there at all and still underpriced

 

you do not even see any ugly small eagles noneat all

 

i did see a slabbed segsa small eagle harshly tooled and quite an ugly rat pig priced liike it was originalk and untooled the fst pig man dealer told me he would give me a deal on ti but i had better act fast as it would be gone saw it last nov 7 at a local show here in my home town rochester

 

small world

 

the reason wqhy there where nosample salbs is that they ran out og them by 10 am sat morn

[JamminJ]

Super report, thanks for sharing.

[HaydenTubbs]

Hayden,

 

Unfortunately, I'm technologically challenged, so no pictures. Sorry.

 

So far, I only have three Broken banknotes, so I'm not sure it's fair to call it a "collection" just yet!

 

Dave,more than one item is a collection.