Catbert

All right - here's the Day 1 report. Even though I'll be here two more days, today will be tough to beat! Here are some random thoughts.

Met dready who was very nice! He introduced to a friend of his from Ohio and we talked about currency prices (not my specialty) and our impressions of the show. It was great to meet him. This is a huge show, much bigger than Central States which was the biggest I had attended previously. Trying to see what everyone offers will really take more than one day.

The morning was partially spent viewing Heritage lots. My goal this trip is to find a nice Barber quarter and they had several in their auction. After reviewing many proofs and higher uncs, I landed on one that really caught my eye that I thought I could afford (as described by Heritage):

1893 MS65 PCGS. CAC. Well struck and lustrous, with mottled charcoal, green, blue, and rose toning on each side, which is heaviest near the borders. Carefully preserved and blemish-free, on obverse and reverse alike. A pleasing Gem. Population: 19 in 65, 4 finer (11/08). From the Plymouth Collection. (#5604).

While certainly the above has some marketing speak, it is a truly nice coin in hand and I decided that I would bid on it later that afternoon.

First, though, I wanted to see some similar examples on the bourse. I found a few, but they were much higher than the Heritage reserve listed. I figured I might be in for a battle, but since the catalogue did not have a picture of the coin I figured that might be in my favor. This afternoon, I sat nervously waiting on my lot number seeing several other coins selling to either mail, internet, or in person bids. This was my first Heritage auction where I was going to bid and I was hopeful. When my lot came up, I was the only bidder! Yeehaw! Even with the buyer's premium added in, I was right in the middle of the greysheet bid-ask spread. I am on cloud 9!

I then returned to the bourse to revisit a PCGS 65 Walker that I had noticed. I have always wanted a nice example of the type and I figured I could get one for reasonable money given their abundant availability. I saw a nicely lightly pink obverse version along with some golden outer rim toning on the reverse. While the right leg had either weak strike or light wear, I went ahead and purchased since I really liked the toning. You understand that after I bought the Barber I was like a drug addict and I justified the Walker purchase as my methadone to my heroin addiction .

I then came across the Standing Liberty Quarter specialist dealer J.H. Cline. I wasn't going to buy anything after my gorging binge, however, I was given his SLQ 4th edition book for FREE! Isn't that totally cool?

And then to cap the day off, I went to the PCGS booth and swooned over Sunnywood's "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" collection of toned Morgan Dollars - what he calls his Basic 100 set. PCGS will need to clean the drool I left on the countertop.

What a day! I wish all of you could be here and experience this huge show.