Tweet
I got to the show Thursday morning around 10:30 or ˝ hour after it opened with my longtime friend Dave who has just started collecting 10-dollar Indian gold pieces. It was not packed and very easy to stroll around the dealer’s cases as we moved up and down the aisles. We made it till about 3:30 the first day having walked up and down rows 1- 8 of 15. My friend spotted about 5 possible gold coins while the only thing I came upon was a 1953 cent in a Capitol Plastics proof set with a Reengraved 402 die. But of course, I would have had to buy the entire set and would have not have broken even if I got the cent attributed and tried to sell it so I passed.
I did stop by Andy Skarbalak’s table (Angel Dee’s) and thanked him for brokering the deal so I could but the 1909 VDB MPL last year. So other than looking at a lot of cents, I saw or found nothing the first day.
The second day we arrived about the same time and it was still not very congested. We started where we left off searching till 11:30 am when we headed across the street for the PCGS Luncheon. I was greeted by Mel Pruitt who was a Lincoln Cent collector but now just buys amazingly beautiful toned coins regardless of denomination – or country. We had not seen each other face - to - face since my last FUN Show about 7 years ago but keep up with one another on the PCGS forum. He told me he had a cent he wanted me to look at and pulled out a 1911 D RPM 1 easily AU 58. He asked if I still had the best graded 1911 D RPM 1 and I said I did and was about to better it with an AU 55…but it looks like he will have the top pop honor once he gets the coin graded. He has had it for about a year trying to “curate” it by leaving it outdoors since it had been cleaned at one time.
The new President of PCGS gave a talk on his background that was pretty interesting. The founder of PCGS David Hall was seen at the Stacks and Bowers auction table talking and the Vice president Don Willis was seen talking at another dealers table. Both men had been booted out of PCGS a few months ago for unknown reasons so after the new President talked he introduced staff members who talked about the coming changes to the PCGS registry which did not amount to much other than achievement badges when you reach certain collecting milestones.
After the luncheon we headed back over and finished our search. My friend Dave did stop by the Whitman Publishing table to buy the book David Q Bowers wrote on collecting Gold. He was told if he waited a few minutes, Mr. Bowers would be stopping by if he wanted it autographed, which we did. Here is my friend getting his booked signed. He also asked Mr. Bowers for any quick advice on collecting and he said look for nice looking MS 62 to MS 63 examples. It just so happened a couple of tables away we spotted a very nice 1909 MS 62 10 Dollar gold piece at a get price so my friend asked the dealer if he could take it over to Mr. Bowers for his expert opinion and the dealer said sure. Mr. Bowers said it was exactly the kind of coin he was talking about and recommend he buy it which he did.
I looked at a few more cents before we finished up but walked out of the show after 2 days of searching with nothing while my friend got the one coin. But we still had fun at FUN.
Looking across the show when we took a break. And my friend Dave getting his booked signed by David Q. Bowers.
FUN 600.jpgBowers at FUN.jpg
I did stop by Andy Skarbalak’s table (Angel Dee’s) and thanked him for brokering the deal so I could but the 1909 VDB MPL last year. So other than looking at a lot of cents, I saw or found nothing the first day.
The second day we arrived about the same time and it was still not very congested. We started where we left off searching till 11:30 am when we headed across the street for the PCGS Luncheon. I was greeted by Mel Pruitt who was a Lincoln Cent collector but now just buys amazingly beautiful toned coins regardless of denomination – or country. We had not seen each other face - to - face since my last FUN Show about 7 years ago but keep up with one another on the PCGS forum. He told me he had a cent he wanted me to look at and pulled out a 1911 D RPM 1 easily AU 58. He asked if I still had the best graded 1911 D RPM 1 and I said I did and was about to better it with an AU 55…but it looks like he will have the top pop honor once he gets the coin graded. He has had it for about a year trying to “curate” it by leaving it outdoors since it had been cleaned at one time.
The new President of PCGS gave a talk on his background that was pretty interesting. The founder of PCGS David Hall was seen at the Stacks and Bowers auction table talking and the Vice president Don Willis was seen talking at another dealers table. Both men had been booted out of PCGS a few months ago for unknown reasons so after the new President talked he introduced staff members who talked about the coming changes to the PCGS registry which did not amount to much other than achievement badges when you reach certain collecting milestones.
After the luncheon we headed back over and finished our search. My friend Dave did stop by the Whitman Publishing table to buy the book David Q Bowers wrote on collecting Gold. He was told if he waited a few minutes, Mr. Bowers would be stopping by if he wanted it autographed, which we did. Here is my friend getting his booked signed. He also asked Mr. Bowers for any quick advice on collecting and he said look for nice looking MS 62 to MS 63 examples. It just so happened a couple of tables away we spotted a very nice 1909 MS 62 10 Dollar gold piece at a get price so my friend asked the dealer if he could take it over to Mr. Bowers for his expert opinion and the dealer said sure. Mr. Bowers said it was exactly the kind of coin he was talking about and recommend he buy it which he did.
I looked at a few more cents before we finished up but walked out of the show after 2 days of searching with nothing while my friend got the one coin. But we still had fun at FUN.
Looking across the show when we took a break. And my friend Dave getting his booked signed by David Q. Bowers.
FUN 600.jpgBowers at FUN.jpg
not to mention hang out with a buddy for a couple of days!!!
Be verwy verwy quiet... I'm hunting coins!!! 
Comment