Saturday
Registration went smoothly. I saw several familiar faces at lunch and met a couple of new people. Bill Fivaz cracked up the crowd at Orientation with his hillbilly teeth. (Wish I had a picture.)
Sunday
I arrived early (7:15 AM) for the ANA book sale and was still #8 in line. There was not as good a selection of books this year and the guys ahead of me cherrypicked some of the better materials. But I still got a few nice books - 10 in all. I grabbed the following:
- The Coin Dealer Newsletter - A Study In Rare Coin Price Performance 1963-1988. HB Over 500 pages. A steal at $1!!!
- Selections From The Numismatist - Ancient And Medieval Coins. HB (At least my second copy) $8
- Confederate And Southern State Currency. HB $30
- Secrets of a Professional Coin Dealer. SB $1
- United States Pattern Coin Prices 1946-1947. Pamphlet. (2 copies) 10 cents each!
- The Buffalo Nickel. Cohen & Druley. SB $10
- The Walking Liberty Half Dollar. Swiatek. SB $5
- The United States Clad Coinage. Rapsus. $7
- Pikes Peak or Bust - A Brief History of Colorado's Rich Numismatic Tradition. Pamphlet. $5
I picked up a few more books on sale at the bookstore:
- Standing Liberty Quarters. 4th Edition. Cline. HB $11.95
- How To Grade US Coins. Halperin. SB $5.95
- Scott Travers' Top 88 Coins Over $100. SB $2
This is a fraction of what I bought last year.
I made arrangements to buy a counterfeit $2 1/2 Indian from a guy that was in my Counterfeit Detection course 2 years ago. Now he only needs to locate it.
Classes started after lunch. Intermediate Grading is full with about 25 students. This is the first year this course has been offered. Before there were Introduction to Grading and then Advanced Grading. This course will fit nicely between the other two and make it easier for many to become advanced graders. The instructors were to be Don Bonser, Mary Sauvain and Matt K. Don was unable to make it this year (his dog died) so Bill Fivaz is filling in for him. (No complaints from me! I think Bill Fivaz is GREAT!)
We have a good mix of students with several from my beginner grading class last year. Half the students are from Oklahoma for some reason and several are from Georgia. We have a couple of dealers, several YNs (some very young) and everything in between. After going over the course goals and student introductions the instructors went over some basic concepts of coins and grading (e.g., luster, original surfaces, how coins are made, etc.). They gave us a little test to gauge our knowledge. I was far from perfect but well ahead of many. We will take the same test at the end of the course to see how we improved in those areas.
We start in earnest in the morining. (8 1/2 hours and I haven't gone to bed. That's what I get for living in town and trying to do some work and go to classes at the same time.)
