Today, I went to the 1st day of the 3-day Tennessee State Numismatic Society Fall coin show. I got there about 5 minutes after the show opened to the public. When I got to the venue, it was packed with people and I had to find a parking space that was further away from the venue. Before I headed inside, I decided to check what spot gold and silver prices were. Spot silver at the time that I arrived that the show was $34.08/oz and spot gold at that time was $1753.40. When I got inside, I showed the front desk my postcard that I got in the mail a few weeks before the show started. They usually require photo ID to get in and I had mine ready to show but since one of the people there recognized me from past Chattanooga coin shows, I did not have to show my photo ID. When I got in the main area where the bullion was, there were lots of people looking at bullion and coins, and it was hard to move around at times. There were also a lot of dealers that I knew from past coin shows that I went to and they recognized me since I bought from them in the past. Of course my main objective for me was to find silver art bars that were very interesting to me to add to my collection. As I was searching for them, I have observed a few prices on other various gold and silver items and here is what I saw: .999 generic silver (1-oz rounds and 1-oz bars) - $35 to $37 1/10 oz Gold Eagles - $195 to $205 1-oz Gold Eagle - $1800 SAE's - $38 to $40. A 1996 SAE was selling for $60.00 Silver art bars = starting at spot (for gold plated silver art bars) to the highest price that I heard of $55.00. 1-oz 2012 Lunar Silver Dragons - $110.00. There were another table that had 2012 Lunar Dragons but I did not ask how much they were. As I mentioned, this was a crowded show and it seemed that it was more crowded than last year around this time. I saw young and old buyers that were buying bullion and non-PM coins. Most of the dealers from what I saw appeared to be older than me (I'm 38). They also had a 20th Anniversary SAE set but I did not see any 25th Anniversary SAE sets at the show. Of course they also had 90%, numismatic gold and silver and non-PM coins. I did see some selling but it was specific items and not necessarily bullion. I did noticed a lot of New Zealand 2011 Fiji Taku Turtle 1oz silver coins at this this show and I saw a price of $40 for them at one of the dealer tables. Overall, even though there was plenty of silver to be had for decent premiums, I was disappointed in that they did not have many silver art bars that I was looking for. I did find a few that I liked and I paid between $36 and $45 for them. I also picked up a sports-themed silver art round for $35.00. I did ok but not great IMO and it took me several walks around the dealer tables to find what little I bought. I left the show around 2:15 PM but I came back a short while later to buy another silver art bar that I saw earlier and left shortly after I made that purchase. I did meet some other silver art bar collectors at this show and I spoke to them and they did not find many silver art bars that they were looking for. I did spend some time talking to some of the dealers that knew me. This coin show continues to tomorrow (Saturday) and the last day is Sunday. I plan to back to the show tomorrow to see if I have any more luck tomorrow on my silver art bar hunt. I do not plan to go back to the show on Sunday.
I originally wrote this on another forum but I will also repeat (i.e. copy and paste) here........... I decided to go back to the 2nd day of the coin show. The show was as crowded today as it was yesterday but I was able to park in the same spot that I parked in yesterday. I got there at close to 11 am and once I got inside, it was still hard to get around at certain dealer tables. There was still .999 generic silver to be had for about the same premiums as yesterday. There was one dealer that was selling gold-plated .999 silver art bars for spot price but he was cleaned out yesterday and I did not see this particular dealer today. I did not buy anything from that dealer because I did not see anything that he had that was interesting. There was a dealer from Atlanta, GA that came to the show today and he had lots of .999 generic silver for .50 over spot and, so far, that is the lowest premium that I have seen for today for .999 generic silver. I know that dealer because I have done business with this dealer at past coin shows and he usually has great premiums on .999 generic silver. There is a possibility that I might decide to go back to the show later today or maybe tomorrow but I have not made a final decision on that yet. Usually a lot of out of town dealers are gone that third day but sometimes you can get good deals on bullion from the dealers that are still there on that last day. In the past, I usually do not go on the last day but I might make an exception this year.
I did not go to the last day of the coin show today. Two days of the show for me was good enough and, overall, this year's fall show was ok for me. Not great but not very bad. For a show of this size, it ended up being only average show for me IMO in terms of the silver art bars that I ended up buying during my time there. I forgot to mention this in my OP but I did notice one thing that I have not really noticed before and that was the presence of more copper rounds and bars. I saw a lot of copper rounds and copper bars at this show this year. Some copper Buffalo rounds and some generic copper bars. I guess copper is the "poor man's silver". Overall for me I would give this show a letter grade of "C". Of course this is just my opinion and other people who were at the show will have different opinions on this show depending what what they were looking for and whether they found what they were looking for. With all of that said, I would go again next year and I plan to go back to this show next year. EDIT: Correction: The dealer that I mentioned in post # 2 of this thread had .999 generic silver for $0.30 over spot. Not $0.50 over spot as I incorrectly posted in post #2 of this thread.
Honestly speaking, I do not know. I did not ask. You can correct me if I am wrong here but I think that the copper rounds and bars are not weighed in troy oz's but are weighed in avoirdupois oz's.
I believe that is true because the spot price of copper is based on its price per pound rather than per troy ounce. I'm a brand new collector and have been looking into adding some copper into my collection (for the collection, not as an investment) and so far everything I have found online has commanded extreme premiums. I was just wondering if I would have any better luck going to a coin show to try and buy some rather than from a website like www.providentmetals.com.
I have a few copper rounds but not many but those are the ones that I like. I guess a person would have to shop around to get the best price but based on what I have seen on ebay these carry very high premiums.
