Charmy's ANA Summer Seminar Report with LOTS OF PICTURES!

I arrived in Colorado Springs Thursday afternoon. I have to say that the flight from Denver to Colorado Springs was quite an adventure, sort of like a huge roller coaster! And other than the pilot missing the landing due to the wind current and having to circle back around, the flight was the shortest flight I'd ever been on. This photo was taken as we landed in Denver.





I got to the ANA headquarters just in time for the wine a cheese reception at the ANA Museum. Wow, what a wonderful numismatic museum! Here are photos I took inside of some of the exhibits - FYI, for those of you concerned regarding the museum photos, Larry Shepherd personally approved my taking photos and posting them on this board for my report, and also, the reception was a special event held at the museum with other photographers taking pictures.


Rick and Nathan





















I picked up three of my Conder tokens that were waiting for me at the ANA vault (a friend had submitted them to NGC along with his Conders and he happened to be at the Summer Seminar so he dropped them off for me). Any way, WOW, I was quite pleased with the grades and these are three wonderful Conders. One is very close to a terminal die state and it graded MS66 BN (Spence's D&H 855). Another is a rare white metal donkey carrying rents and taxes (Spence's 722), and the third is a beautiful Spence's 778A. I picked them up just before the reception, and put them in my shirt pocket since i only had a very tiny purse and they wouldn't fit. So everyone could see I had coins in my pocket and of course wanted to see what I had. The terminal die Conder was quite a hit at the reception, and it got passed all around with many ooooohs and ahhhhhhs, all to my enjoyment of course!









Following the reception was the awards banquet for the first session where all the instructors and volunteers are recognized.









I finally got to meet Bruce/Hobo (on CoinTalk) in person - what a wonderfully nice guy!



Steve



John and Eric hamming it up right after they received their award



Sandy, an ANA staffer



Me



2011 Banquet token given to everyone at the banquet



Then, following the banquet was a talent show that included a card magician, a few wonderful piano players, and an amazing flutist (Akia) who played these huge bass-type flutes - I neglected to get a photo of these.


And finally, I ended up of course at the famous (infamous?) Lunar Lounge!







Jerry Bobbe on the cello






Here are some photos of the college campus and dorm area.







Then Friday was another pretty busy day. I enjoyed a nice breakfast with David Lange (NGC) at the school cafeterial.




After breakfast, Rick drove us to the coin show where we spent a few hours perusing all the dealers' cases. It's funny, because when Rick and I arrived at the show, we sort of automatically went in separate directions - he started at one end of the room and I went to the other so that we weren't "competing" to buy the same coin at the same time!


It sure was nice to be on the other side of the table and not have to worry about getting back to my own table, etc. It was much more relaxing and carefree. Right inside the door is Doug Bird and John K who showed me an amazingly rare silver kneeling slave Conder (only 2 known). Then I briefly chatted with Glenn/PonyExpress, Paul/CoinKid, and another YN Jeff.









I picked up a few coins, including a really nice earl die state of the 1909 vdb DDO (PCGS MS64 BN) with bold doubling, a very pretty 1864 Bronze Indian cent with numerous die breaks (ANACS MS64 RB/RED) and a beautiful toned 1894 Proof Indian (PCGS PF64 RB).





Knowing how much I love toned copper, Larry Shepherd very graciously invited me to view his AMAZING toned Indian proof collection, so after the show, Rick and I stopped by Larry's office at the ANA to see these stunning pieces. And all I can say is WOW! My mouth dropped open and I could feel drool starting to form as I picked up each piece, one by one. Most of them are graded PF67 - and they truly were jaw droppers. A few of them he had bought in the original mint wrapper and sent them in to be graded still in that original celophane. I was so honored just to be holding and seeing these beauties in person. So a big THANKS! goes out to Larry for letting me have the pleasure of viewing some of the prettiest copper I've ever seen.










After Larry put those beauties back in the vault, he showed us a foamboard of the floorplans for both the upcoming Chicago and ANA shows. The Chicago show is almost sold out and is bigger than any other ANA show to date. And they have organized the set up so the public enters down one main aisle which leads straight to the exhibits. Also, there are many more corner tables than ever before. Also, he had to expand the Pittsburgh show because the original group of tables was already completely sold out, so they added another group of tables to accommodate all the requests to set up at this brand new show. This is very exciting to hear, since it seems like the ANA is doing everything they can to bring back the popularity of big coin shows. They have also greatly expanded the amount and type of marketing they are doing, including creating an entire magazine on all there is to do in Chicago so the collectors and their families can make a vacation of coming to Chicago.


We ran into Scott Rottinghaus at the ANA offices and he gave me one of his campaign tokens.





This is an old coin press that is on display at the ANA offices.





While we were leaving the ANA offices, they were removing an obsolete plaque that still had Cipoletti's name (they were actually using a crowbar to pry it off the wall!).





After we left the ANA, we picked up Todd who had just arrived and headed over to Cripple Creek which is an old mining town that has a lot of tiny casinos and card rooms. We took a more rural route called Gold Camp Drive that was an old train track road. It went through old train tunnels, was partly paved, mostly dirt, and winded through some beautiful country. However, we soon realized that, rather than heading towards Cripple Creek, we had taken a wrong turn somewhere along the road and were headed back to Colorado Springs. So we stopped at the visitor's center and found out there had been a tunnel collapse a while ago and there was a different route we should have taken - Stagecoach Road. So we were soon back on our way. Here are some photos I took along the way, including one of a not-so-shy doe grazing along side the road.















Though it took us a couple hours to get there, as I mentioned it was a very scenic drive. After we arrived in Cripple Creek, Rick and I headed to the poker room while Todd took off to find in the other direction to play some slots. Later, we met up with Glen/PonyExpress and Paul/CoinKid. Paul and I ended up playing some roulette together and unfortunately, he was getting frustrating because the ball kept leaping right over his number, but fortunately for me, it lept right onto my numbers! Also, the casino had a special "bingo" thing going on so if certain numbers hit, it was a "bingo" and if you were on that number you won an extra $25. Well, i ended up getting 4 bingos, along with hitting several numbers - I left the table a few hundred dollars ahead (though that still didn't make up for what I lost at the dang BlackJack table!). We ended up getting back to the dorms well after midnight!

All in all, it was a very eventful and fun day!

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Saturday...


What a freaky storm we had just before dinner! Sudden thunder and lightening, then pounding hail - it was so unexpected and completely amazing!















Besides the huge hail storm that just passed, here are some highlights from Saturday. Rick, Chris/Halfhunter and I took a trip up to Pike's Peak - wow, it is strunning and breathtaking! And what a beautiful day to take a drive, but you'd better not be afraid of heights when traveling on the road to the top (elevation over 14,000 feet)! Here are photos I took along the way....





























On our way back to the dorms we decided to locate some poker chips so we could get a game going tonight. Along the way, we passed right by the U.S. Olympic Headquarters so, of course, we had to stop and take more photos!









When we got back from Pike's Peak, it was time to officially register for the week. Todd was hanging out there so we took a few minutes to relax.





We also registered for the Minor Leage baseball game on Monday night (Sky Socks) which includes a BBQ and of course fire works.


Speaking of BBQ, we had a tasty BBQ dinner following the registration which luckily was under a large tent so we stayed dry even though the rain returned. By the way, we actually bought some wine glasses at a little winery near the bottom of the Pike's Peak mountain so we wouldn't have to keep drinking wine out of paper cups. We also bought a couple yummy bottles of local wine - here's one of them! And the glasses sure made all the difference!





We plan to start a friendly poker game here shortly, so that's about it for today. Classes start Sunday afternoon!

 

Sweet! Ound lik efun!

 

Looks like it was alot of fun. Crazy about the hail.

Thanks for sharing your story and photos as always!

 

Really nice Penny Lady. Wish I was there.
It might be fun watching you and Rick trying to buy the same coin.

 

Only a prybar/crowbar on that Cipolleti plaque? Surprised a jack hammer wasn't employed......

Fantastic write up Charmy. I've enjoyed (and will continue to enjoy) reading it.

 

What a wonderful writeup, Charmy. That hailstorm was something, huh? It came right before the ANA Hall of Fame ceremony. That was the most rain we have had in a LONG time but we really needed it here.

It was nice to meet you and I look forward to chatting with you during the week. (It's almost time for lunch.)

 

Nice write up charmy. Thanks for sharing.

 

+1

 

Sunday....
Last night we played poker at Lunar Lounge until midnight. There were 6-8 of us, and we had a blast - well, especially me, since I was the big winner! Even Todd played and ended up a winner at the end of the night! Though staying up this late sure makes it hard in the morning to get moving, and even harder in the afternoon when you have to be in class and actually pay attention and think!
This morning was pretty relaxing, everyone was taking it easy until their classes started at 1pm. So we drove over to Garden of the Gods and viewed the neat sand formations from the Jurassic period.








Then everyone headed to their respective classes for the afternoon. I took Doug Bird and Steve Carr's Early American Copper class and learned quite a bit just in the 4 hours we had today! Here are a couple photos of my class.


After class, we headed to the cafeteria for dinner which was pretty good despite the previous poor reviews of the catering here. Of course, I brought a bottle of wine, which makes everything taste better! I actually left my newly purchased glass at the bbq last night but was very fortunate that the caterers had set it aside so I was able to retrieve it, thank goodness!

Following dinner, we made a wine, beer, ice and more poker chip run into town! While we were out, another big storm came up, with thunder, lightening, and lots of rain (no hail this time).

When we got back, there was this big area of bright blue sky and sun, yet the rain was still pooring down on us. So I took these photos of this beautiful conundrum.


Now we're headed back to Lunar Lounge for another rousing poker game!

 

Nice! :smile

 

Knows when to holds 'em and knows when to folds 'em. Sounds like you're havin' some fun........

Now pay attention in class.......

 

How was class green? Was it AWSOME? LOL! :smile

 

Monday...
This was our first day of full classes. As I mentioned, I'm taking Doug Bird and Steve Carr's Early American Copper class. We spent a lot of time on becming familiar with EAC books and learning to attribute large and half cents. It was quite tedious but so worth all the effort.






John Wright graciously donated a copy of his book "The Cent" to our class for each one of us to keep! Wow, I know it's about $100 book, so we were all very thrilled and appreciative to have this book!


We also received an older copy of "Copper Quotes by Jack Robinson" which is the best pricing guide for EAC.


I went to the book sale at the ANA offices on Sunday when it first opened but it was overly crowded and too difficult to sort through the books. So at lunch I went back to the ANA and was able to check out what was left. I ended up buying some really neat old pamphlet type books on of course various types of copper! I was especially pleased with one of the books which is a 1924 reprint of a very rare 1881/1883 EAC book.







Then after class, a bunch of us gathered to head over to the Sky Sox baseball game and fireworks. Here are some photos taken on the bus.





Opening ceremonies



That is the first minor league game I'd been to and it was a lot of fun - they had some sort of entertainment in between each inning, including this guy who had life-sized Michael Jackson puppets lined up and attached to several horizontal poles and he was in the middle, and whenever he moved his arms or legs, all the other puppets moved in unison. It was quite an interesting and entertaining act.



Me and my new Sky Sox hat!




Rick/EagleEye and Chris/HalfHunter


Rick and his patriotic hotdog!


Glenn/PonyExpress


Todd/Blu62vette and one of his students



Some of the wonderful fireworks following the game




And finally, the bus ride home!

 

Sound Like fun!!!

 

Thanks for the nice write-up and pics Charmy. I'm glad I missed the hail storm (I left on Friday). Looks like it could have dented my wife's new Grand Cherokee...not good!

 

Tuesday....

We had another informative day in my EAC class, did a lot of attributing and grading which seemed to go quite a bit faster than the day before. We also discussed different types of counterfeits and then we were tested to see if we could detect the counterfeit large and half cents from among about 20 different pieces. This is a great class so far, but I'm discovering that the more I learn, the more I know I have a lot more to learn!

Later after dinner, I attended the "Minting Mayhem" class with Joe Paonessa from the Badger Mint (he also creates the most beautiful Hobo nickels). Now, that is a fun class, especially if you're interested in how errors were created.

We got to work on a rolling mill:



a punch press:





a Castaing machine or edge mill:



and a No. 4 screw press (or fly press):


close up of the die on the screw press:




Using 4 pewter planchets, I created a couple of deep die caps but two planchets stuck to the hammer die and two stuck to the anvil die, so I ended up with an obv double die cap and a rev double die cap. Then I created a strike thru using a piece of copper wire that got completely meshed into the planchet. The last error I made was a double struck off center.



After the class, as Rick mentioned, several people gathered back at Lunar Lounge to listen to Ron Landis (who played a beautiful Dubrow guitar), Sonny Henry, Mark Hammang and David McCarthy play guitars and the harmonica (the harmonica is one of my favorite instruments to listen to - that's probably why I like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springstein and U2 so much). What a wonderful and relaxing atmosphere it was, the weather was cool and breezy, we had a spectacular view of Pike's Peak, all the while listening to some very talented people playing great music. It doesn't get any better than that!

 

Looks like you had a great time.
How did the poker game go the second night...

 

Duke, the first Lunar Lounge game we played I won $80, the second time we played I lost $35. We had one guy who is a great guy and he's very funny, but he kept bumping the pots, even though he didn't have a hand, but he would "suck out" on the river every time! He was did ok the first night but "killed" everyone the second night taking home over $120!

I'll bbe updating this thread shortly with the rest of the week's events..... stay tuned!

 

Another fun write up! Way to go Charmy!! :thumb: