Charmy's BIG 2012 ANA PHILLY Report w/TONS of Pics!!!

The ANA’s World’s Fair of Money is probably the largest (at least in size) show each year, and one I greatly anticipate since it means I get to buy some amazing coins to buy for both inventory and my personal collection, I usually sell quite a bit of inventory, I get to visit a new and interesting city and experience their culture and local food, and I get to see/meet some amazing coin people. As a result this report is going to be quite photo packed so I will post it in segments.

Sunday – I had a nice direct flight from LAX to Philly, so my sweet hubby dropped me off at the airport early Sunday morning. After I checked my bag, I headed through security, but as often is the case, they wanted to do extra screening on my carry-on bags so I asked for a private room and they directed me to this tiny room with two TSA officers, who were both very nice and respectful. They did their usual search through both my carry-on bags which were, of course, full of coins, along with swiping the inside of my bag with their special little wand that detects drug and/or bomb residue. However, apparently the swab they used for my slabbed coins set off their security alarm and they brought in the supervisor to tell me I would need “additional” screening. I was a little concerned because I didn’t know what to expect. I was curious as to what alarm was set off but the supervisor said that was confidential and I was not allowed to know. I asked if they knew, and he said they did, but they couldn’t tell me. They then proceeded to perform a rather thorough body pat down (I was a little disappointed that they wouldn’t grant my request for a male to do this – (wink)) and they also did another more through search of my 6 double row boxes of slabs. Even though I usually arrived at airports 2 hours early, this was taking quite a bit of time and I was beginning to get a little nervous that I would miss my flight. Luckily, however, the second test proved negative, and I was free to continue to my gate. I still have no clue as to what would have set off their alarm.

Shortly after I got to my gate I found out that, due to the big thunder and lightning storm on the east coast, all flights to the east coast were delayed, including mine. The board said my flight would leave about an hour later, so I decided to go get my usual preflight beverage – this time I chose an Irish coffee.



A little while later I went back to my gate and found it deserted! The flight ended up boarding pretty much on time, but I hadn’t heard the announcement. The gate agent said they were just about to make an announcement at the restaurant because there were several people still missing.

I’ve never Flown Virgin America before and was curious to see what kind of airline it would be, what amenities they offered, and how good their service was. Although it was expensive ($129), since it was a 5-hour flight I decided to upgrade to the level just below first class so I could have priority boarding which would ensure I would have adequate overhead space for my bag, plus it included my checked bag fee, all food, beverages, wi-fi, movies and extra leg room. I felt that it was well worth the extra fee! So I found my seat, sat back, ordered some wine, watched a movie, then took a nap.





When we got to the Philly area, we had to circle around a short while to wait for the storm to pass over before we landed. We then had to wait on the tarmack for about ½ hour while they moved all the planes in and out of the gates.








This was just an interesting sculpture I saw at the airport



A shot of the city on my way to my hotel




I ended up at the small bar at the hotel and had my very first Philly Cheesesteak sandwich (I prefer them with only meat and cheese, no onions or peppers. It was very yummy!




Monday – I went over to the pre-show, dropped my coins off at Rick Snow’s table, and wandered around to see what I could find. I ended up finding lots of great coins for my inventory, as well as a Two Cent proof in a DOILY HOLDER (from CRO) which I’ll keep in my own collection and a couple very cool Wiener Cathedral medals!






Then I wondered around the Reading market across the street, bought another Philly cheesesteak sandwich.












I even found a cute little winery and ran into our new ANA President, Jeff Shevlin.








I did a little wine tasting, and bought one of their tasty Pennsylvania wines.






Then I headed back to the show for set up time.





After everything was all ready to go, I opened up that Pennsylvania wine, sat down and enjoyed a glass or two, then wandered around to take some pictures.










After set up was over, Rick invited me to attend the PNG reception/dinner at Davia’s Restaurant. I was able to meet and chat with some very notable numismatists, including the incredible David Bowers!







This is Stephen Fanton, Rick Snow, and Dave Neita


The reception was held in the penthouse which had a great view of the city





I know you boys will appreciate this, there were some ladies with the most beautiful shoes that I just had to take a picture of them! Boy, did I feel under-dressed!

 

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Tuesday – The show opened at 10am to the public, and there was quite a crowd watching the opening ceremony, and registering to get in!











JJ Teaparty was celebrating someone’s 70th birthday!



FunWithMPLs stopped by and was very kind to give me these some wonderful bottles of wine from his family’s vineyard



After the show, I went to the Stack’s Bowers auction to watch the bidding on some of the lots I had consigned to them. Bidding seemed pretty strong on several lots, with a few of the “key” players going back and forth.



Then I walked over to the ANA kick off dinner at the Constitution building, which took me through China Town







A statute in front of the police department




The Philadelphia Mint is right across the street from the Constitution Center


Independence Hall




Our little group – Rick, Karin, her daughter Brittany, and Rick’s friend Neil






After dinner, we wandered through the very cool exhibits





Several stacks of law books








I was surprised at how tall George Washington was

 

Wednesday – There were good crowds throughout the day but business was spotty for me. I had a couple good sales, but for most of the day it was pretty slow so I wandered around and took pics of the fabulous exhibits, mints, and other interesting things I saw on the bourse.

Todd hard at work!


Good ol Ben!


Ben and me!






















This is a beautiful and stunning complete set of Flying Eagle and Indian cents in PCGS MS64 Red – and most of the coins are in old green holders put together by my friend Dino. He was taking bids on the complete set. It includes the very rare 1856 Flying Eagle and a beautiful 1895 Indian cent in a rare Doily holder!










This is one of the most impressive and well-researched exhibits I’ve seen. This MPL exhibit was painstakingly researched, photographed, and assembled by our own Carl/FunWithMPLs. It includes every die variety by date. All I can say is WOW – GREAT JOB Carl!!! (Unfortunately, my pitiful photos do not do this exhibit justice.)

Carl/FunWithMPLs

























There was also this very clever and huge exhibit of about 8 showcases of various money candy. Everything in the case was some sort of candy that was wrapped, shaped, or molded to look like money!






I loved this casino chip exhibit – this is only part of it.








Very cool telegraph with Morse Code chart




A display of penny oddities, including a couple of extremely rare 1943 copper pennies, and some penny errors





I’m always pleased to see and chat with our forum members and was glad several of them stopped by to say hi. Some even graciously allowed me to include them in my show report!

Mark Feld “shines” and is still easily recognizable!


This is Mark’s reaction to receiving Todd’s bill for photography services!


Littlebear


This is one of my favorite people on the planet – my dear friend Curly!


He brought me a wonderful bottle of Pennsylvania wine….


And I gave him one of my “The Penny Lady” hats which he told me he was proud to wear!


RWB and Orville – what a pair they are!


Barndog's very cute daughter, Katy/BarndogJr.


TreasHunt


Garrow/Yellowjacket


A fellow female coin dealer – Bonnie/Albanese Rare Coins


Matt/BillyGoat (in his pink shirt!)


Wizard Coin Representatives!!!


This CAC character was hilarious!




Mike/MFH


John K/Pistareen was very busy and always has some very interesting things in his cases.







And this is the pastrami sandwich that Todd is addicted to – I think he’s had at least 5 since he’s been in Philly – and there’s still 2 more days left!

 

After the show on Wednesday, a group of us, including one of my very good customers, headed over to the City Tavern which is a 1700’s tavern and the waiters and waitresses are all dressed in period clothing, and the food served is from period recipes, including the chocolate mousse cake which is allegedly from Martha Washington’s personal recipe. The food was absolutely delicious, and we were completely stuffed by the time we left!











Karin, Rick and Neil


Chuck and me


Chuck had the porkchops


I had the filet medallions


This is the Martha Washington chocolate mousse cake



After dinner, we went around the corner to a little pub that had the HUGEST selection of beer I’ve EVER seen!




This is a picture of just 2 pages of their beer selection – there were 3 more pages just like these!




So that’s it for now. I’ll add more to this thread as I can!

 

It was a pleasure seeing you again! It is amazing to me to see so many incredible coins and notes! No shortage of ways to break the bank. It's a great opportunity if you can get here.

 

Great report as always Charmy, you bring Philly to my living room

 

Wow, big report so far. Very enjoyable and lots of pics indeed. Thanks Charmy!

 

Wow Charmy, I think you have really topped yourself (not easily done BTW) with this one! This was almost as much fun as being there! Thanks for your generous sharing, as always.

Best Regards, :hail:

George

 

Thanks for spoiling some of us that can't make it this year (namely me Have a great time and thanks for the photos Charmy.

 

Makes me wish I were there. Maybe the next one.

Great report Charmy. You make all of the places you visit so alive and vibrant.

 

Great report. Thanks! I have been to that beer place many times. Love that hoppy Belgian brew. :cheers: TC

 

:thumb:Great report Charmy!!! I see ya found Q.

 

Nice report charmy. Love reading about your adventures at coin shows.

 

And you're even close!! You should have went down with Ruben the other day.

 

It was very nice to see you there, and thanks for the report.

 

Somebody knows how to have a great time in a new city. I was glad just to get in and out of Philadelphia.

You guys STILL missed the coin exhibit at the University of Pennsylvania!


One day someone will wander into that place and say -- WOW -- this is what Ruben was talking out.

 

FYI, when I was writing and preparing my report the other night, I didn’t have my notes with me, so I’ve made some changes and added a few more photos above today.

Thursday – The show started out a little slow and the public trickled in, but soon the bourse was buzzing with activity. Between regular customers looking for coins for their collections, “inquiring minds” customers, “just lookin” customers, the packs of cute little kids’ working on their treasure trivia sheet, and vest pocket dealers showing me coins, I was kept steadily busy so I didn’t get out much to take more photos around the bourse floor.

By the way, I should mention that on Tuesday and Wednesday, I’ve never seen Todd more busy taking coin photos than at this show. Every time I turned around there was another pile of coins in the case on the back table. They just kept piling up. And I was constantly tapping on Todd’s shoulder to remove his head from his photo cave because another customer wanted to talk to him. I was getting worried that he wouldn’t have time to take photos of MY coins! You’d think that since we share a table, I’d have priority, but somehow it works out that my coins get pushed to the very bottom of the pile! I guess I’m going to have to be nicer to Todd – NOT!

However, I did manage to snap photos of a few more people who stopped by to say hi:

AJ/JerseyCat


Darryl/USS656


ColonelJessup


Scott Rottinghaus/ANA Governor and his lovely wife


An adorable little guy working on his Treasure Trivia hunt


A couple pretty little trinket bracelets I picked up/traded for from a dealer friend (I sure love my bling!)


After the show, I headed over to the little Sugar House casino that on the other side of town. However, they didn’t have a poker room so I had a great time playing some 3-card poker, Black-Jack, and Ultimate Texas Hold-Um. However, your money sure comes and goes a lot faster playing these games over regular Texas Hold-Um poker!




Friday – It started out pretty much the same as Thursday, the crowds sort of trickled in and the bourse floor seemed a little sparse for a while. But thankfully, the buzz soon returned and business picked up.

At noon, Todd went over to the PCGS lunch, and as soon as he returned, I went to the Fly-In Club meeting. David Bowers was giving a very interesting presentation on Civil War Tokens next door to our club meeting room, and it was still going on when I arrived so I listened in for a little while. When I arrived, he was talking about how some merchants created encased postage stamps to use as trade tokens for their stores. I found it interesting because I just saw an episode on Pawn Stars where a guy was selling the exact same thing from the early 1860’s with a Washington 3 cent stamp in the encasement. I have several encased Indian cents in my personal collection, so I think these encased stamps are quite fascinating. Here’s a photo of a similar encased stamp.



The room was completely packed with standing room only. Here are a couple photos of Mr. Bowers’ talk but the room was dark so the photos didn’t turn out that well.




Then I went to my Fly-In Club meeting which is always interesting and informative. Rick talked about and showed everyone various counterfeit Indian cents and some 1909-S vdb cents. To me, education on learning how to detect counterfeit coins is one of the most important parts of numismatics, and the more we can see and handle actual counterfeits and learn how they are made, the better we can enhance the quality of numismatics. Unfortunately, I was so caught up in listening and learning, that I forgot to take photos at the meeting!

Back on the bourse floor, I saw this funny looking bird walking around!


Towards the end of the day on Friday, a customer walked up to my table and offered me this very interesting OVAL Indian cent pocket mirror. I have seen and own round pocket mirror advertising pieces, but I have never even seen an oval-shaped one! I thought it was very cool, so we worked out a deal and I now have this little beauty in my own collection. (I will post a photo of it tomorrow.)

After the show ended, Todd and I went over to a little noodle house restaurant in China town for dinner.




Todd had these turnip appetizers at another Chinese restaurant and said they were really good, so we decided to order a dish of them. However, when they arrived, Todd said they didn’t look like the ones he’d had before. We both tried them, and they were so spicy hot that we could only handle a couple of them! (I’m definitely a weanie when it comes to spicy food!). We also ordered some very yummy pan-fried dumplings and the same bbq pork noodle dish which was delicious.




At our table was this very large bottle of sauce that Todd called “chicken sauce.” I’d never seen it before but Todd said it was very good and that people put it on everything!


And just so you all know, I opted out of going out for drinks after dinner just so I could work on my report. (Ok, perhaps I was a somewhat influenced by the fact that I’m a little tired and wanted to get to bed early since I have a WIN (Women in Numismatics) meeting early tomorrow morning.)

p.s. I understand the CAC character in the early photos is John Albanese's son!

More to follow…..

 

Yeah, I could have hopped a 'freight' but it just wasn't in the cards for me. Too much goin' on at home currently.

 

Fantastic write-up

Fantastic write-up Penny Lady! Here are a couple photos I took specifically for you.

The ANA had this chamber with money blowing around in it. :smile

The show was the most fun I've had this summer. I bought an Irish penny and a US penny at the show. The only mistake I made was driving into Philadelphia. If I ever tell you that I'm driving into Philadelphia for fun, everyone has the OK to hit me in the head with a shovel. The parking at the show cost me $28/day and then parking at my hotel was an additional $35/night.

 

Saturday – Got all packed, went down to breakfast and saw Carl/FunWithMPLs and his friend J.T. Stanton (I’ve run into several collectors and dealers during breakfast who were staying in our hotel) so it was nice to chat with him again.


Then I headed over to my WIN meeting at the convention center and took a couple photos of the city on my way.


The Reading Market


There is a Dutch fair being held right in front of The Reading Market and they have this really cute pony and cart toting kids around


Then I attended my WIN meeting (Women in Numismatics) where I volunteered to be on the board to help with promoting WIN during shows, etc. Todd didn’t believe I was actually going to get up early enough to make it to the meeting so I took this photo just to prove to him that I did!



The guys from Northern Nevada Coin (Alan, Tony and Wade) are wonderful not to mention fun! They were right across from us and we had many a rubberband war during the slow parts of the show. Today, since the show was quite slow and there wasn’t much public in attendance, I actually ran out of “ammunition” and had to gather all the remnants that were left in the aisle so I could “defend” myself in our brutal battles!



I took some closer photos of the pony cart and the horse and haywagon.












I took a break and went outside to check out the Dutch fair and take some pictures. There was a little petting zoo with various animals and their very cute offspring.








And they also had a little band playing with lots of Amish folks in attendance





So, all in all the show was a good show, not great, but better than average. I bought a lot of coins at this show and sold quite a few too so I’m anxious to add everything up and see how I came out. I have to say that Philly is a very fun town, and I had a blast here. There was so much to see and do and too many great places to eat! I would love to come back to another show here in the future.

The show on Saturday died pretty quickly, and there was lots of packing up activity early on. Todd left around 2pm, so once he was gone, I began packing and headed to the airport around 4pm, even though my flight isn’t until 8pm. So I’m sitting here at the airport bar, had my last “real” Philly cheesesteak sandwich, am enjoying the great 70’s rock and roll music along with a refreshing Mai Tai while inputting the final details of my report before I board my plane. I plan to take a nice nap on my way back to L.A.!






Next up, the new Santa Clara show next weekend!