Today I went to the Tennessee State Numismatic Society Fall Coin Show. This is the first day of the coin show and it continues tomorrow and the last day is on Sunday. This is probably the largest coin show in Tennessee. It was crowded which was expected since this show usually has close to 200 dealer tables. I got there shortly after it opened (about 10:05 AM) but I had to park in the back since the parking lot was getting full. Once I got in, they asked me for id, which was a first since I did not have to do that at past TSNS coin shows. I checked Kitco.com to see where prices where when I got inside the building. Spot silver was $26.51 and spot gold was $1391.00 at that time. My goals at this show were to find some '70's silver art bars that were on my "wish list" and to look for some hobo nickels to add to my hobo nickel collection. Since it was a fairly big coin show, it took several trips walking around the dealer tables to see what I can find. As I was searching for '70's silver art bars and hobo nickels, I did run across some prices on general gold and silver bullion. Here are some prices that I have seen while I was there at the show: SAE's = $28 to $29.50. I am sure that there were some dealer tables that sold some for $30 or more there but I did not pay close attention to that. Engelhard Prospectors = $27.00. I did not see many of these so far at the show. 1/10 oz GAE = $160 to $165. I saw plenty of 1/10 GAEs there. There might have been some that were selling for less than $160 but so far I did not see any. 1-oz '70's silver art bars = Lowest I saw was at spot. Prices ranged from spot to $35. Some rarer one where higher than that. 1-oz .999 generic silver bars = spot to $28.00 100-oz silver bars = $2800 (JM bar only). They also had a few Engelhard 100-oz bars there but not very many. 10-oz silver bars = $275.00 1-oz GAE's = $1430 to $1460 Of course they also had 90% silver, numismatic gold and silver, Kookaburras, Lunars series (gold and silver), and other various gold and silver coins. I did find some hobo nickels and I bought one today but I plan to go back tomorrow to take another look at his hobo nickel selections. They had some '70's silver art bars but I was being picky of what '70's SAB's that I wanted to buy. I lot of the talk from what I was hearing was silver's amazing run. I heard that silver was close to making it to $27. I did talk to a few dealers at the show and that I was fun to me. Overall, it was decent for me and I plan to go back tomorrow to see what else I can find that I missed today. I got there at 10:05 AM and I left at just after 2:00 PM. One of items that I found and bought at the show was this: I have seen these types of Engelhard bars at past coin shows but they always seem to have large premiums on them. The reverse is blank and it is sealed in plastic. I was able to buy this one for $27.00.
Good buy! And thanks for the report. When you get some hobo nickels we want to see the pics. What kind of prices have you seen for hobo nickels?
Actually I did post a pic of the hobo nickel that I bought today but I posted it on another thread. The hobo nickel pic is on this thread (see post #19). http://www.cointalk.com/showthread.php?t=69661&p=1030119&viewfull=1#post1030119 It is the Harley Hobo nickel. EDIT: The prices of hobo nickels can vary by quite a bit from what I know so far. I am still new at hobo nickel collecting but there are certain hobo nickels that can cost from as low as $20 (or less) to as high as $1000's of dollars.
I love and buy bunches of coins, but this kind of stuff I have no idea about. Very interesting. I guess I like the historical/mintage aspect of the coin. I am sure guys like you do this and regular coin purchases. I will start saving up for my March Fort Worth coin show.
My main hobby is collecting 1-oz silver art bars and I have been collecting them for 2 years. I am new to hobo nickel collecting since I started collecting hobo nickels about 2 months ago. I am still learning about hobo nickel collecting but there is a hobo nickel guidebook that I bought that has some very good information in it.
I did go back to the show today to find more silver art bars and hobo nickels. I was able to pick up a few hobo nickels for $8 each and that was a good thing. I did find a silver art bar that I liked at the show. While I was at the show, I also met a couple of silver art bar collectors. We talked for a while about our art bar collections and we ended up exchanging emails. These silver art bar collectors IMO are more knowledgeable than I am on '70's silver art bars and they have more experience collecting silver art bars than I do. It is good to meet other people at the show that also collect art bars. Meeting these two collectors was the most interesting part of my day today at the coin show. I did not stay as long as I did yesterday. I stayed about 2 hours today and left. It was more crowded today than it was yesterday and I had to actually find a parking space on the other side of the building. Overall for me, this was a good show during the two days that I was there. The only down note was that I did not find as many '70's silver art bars as I would like but that is just the way it is. There were actually several '70's art bars there at certain dealer tables but most of them, were 1.) I already had or 2.) They were holiday theme '70's art bars that I had no interest in collecting. There were a lot more hobo nickels at this show than I am used to seeing and I was not disappointed in the selection. I do not plan to go to the show tomorrow (Sunday). I am just going to relax tomorrow.
He goes to a major show and comes back with a boring bland bar......I would have thought You would have at least have found a Youngstown Coca Cola bar. : ) Good find with those hobos....they are almost extinct in my town.
Hobo nickels are very hard to find locally. Most hobo nickels that I have in my collection I bought on ebay. My local shop does not usually have hobo nickels. In addition to the silver Engelhard Canada bar, I did find a silver art bar that I liked at the coin show today. I posted it on my silver art bar thread. It is on post # 165 of that thread. Here is the link to post #165 of my art bar thread: http://www.cointalk.com/showthread.php?t=55843&p=1030649&viewfull=1#post1030649
It is art work that has been carved out of a buffalo nickel. Usually the Indian head is the side of the nickel that has been carved out to create a picture of a different head such as that of a clown, a soldier, or another person. It is miniature artwork on a buffalo nickel.
Actually I am still learning about hobo nickels. I am now to hobo nickel collecting since I have been collecting them for only 2 months. I still have a lot to learn about them. There are posters on this forum that are much more knowledgeable than me on this subject of hobo nickels.
