JA is attending a coin show in Baltimore which I am skipping but I'm taking the opportunity to catch up by reporting Greek coins I bought at a coin show in New Carrolton, Maryland, that played a big part in my collecting. It was my first coin show. Before that I bought by mail from lists and in person at shops but had never before been to a show. It turned out to be my favorite way to buy coins. Before that day, I had very few Greek coins. The year was 1987. The Achaean League (Elis) hemidrachm appealed to me because it was Greek, cheap ($15) and had a nice beard on Zeus. I was still active duty Army at the time so I did not have a beard but retired a year later and changed that. When I first cataloged my collection in 1988, this was the first Greek so it got number 0001 even though I had several (mostly Roman) coins before I got it. I did not record the dealer's name. The show had several very unimpressive displays with sellers lacking signs and not giving printed receipts so I may never have known. First was an Alexander drachm with Ephesis bee under the throne. It came from Colosseum Coin Exchange which was for a period in the 80's one of my better sources for low end coins. I paid too much. Next is one of my first 'expensive' coins. The seller was Charles H. Wolfe who was never cheap but from whom I never bought a coin that I do not still cherish to this day. Buying from him always came with a lesson in numismatics worth as much as the coin. Leukas was a colony of Corinth identifiable by the lambda under Pegasus but I'm sure a lot of the appeal of this coin was the lion head minor type on the reverse. The Parthian tetradrachm is a bit of a dog but was my first large silver Parthian and was cheap ($19) so I bought it from a dealer embarassed to have so poor a coin, I suspect. The ruler was 'unknown king' at the time later believed to be Orodes I (I do not know the current scholarship on this). The Carthage AE16 is still my best from that city. I paid too much for the day but this one has been a joy to own. There were a couple other coins from that day of getting carried away (kid in a sandbox mode!) but those have been 'upgraded'. One, a Sikyon, now belongs to someone I trust is reading this. It came from Colosseum but I have no idea who else has owned it. That is my coin show report. I encourage JA and any of the rest of you to do better in being timely reporting of what you find at Baltimore. I took 29 years so that is not a lot to ask.
Great coins! I will happily give you double what you paid for them. This is the first time I'll be attending Baltimore on a Thursday, so I'm curious to note the difference. Probably the crowds will be smaller.
I've had great time at coins shows too, especially in the eighties, when I got started into ancients. At that time the internet didn't exist though, and catalogues were poorly illustrated (and dealers wouldn't even send them to me, just too little a fish I was). Most of the great purchases I did from that period are stiil in my trays, and so is this Septimius Severus denarius, which was the first roman silver coin I ever bought. It was in 1983 and the 350 french francs I spent were a large amount of money for a studient Septimius Severus, Denarius struck at Rome mint AD 210 SEVERVS PIVS AVG BRIT, Laureate head of Sevrus right VICTORIAE BRIT, Victory facing, holding palm and attaching shield to palm tree 2.72 gr Ref : RCV #6384, Cohen #729 Q
My "problem" with shows is that I enjoy the social aspect as much as the buying. I've spent much too much time chatting with certain favorite dealers instead of shopping.
The chats can be important though. On one occasion I was chatting with a dealer friend of mine. I mentioned I found a Claudius denarius online. He asked the price and I told him. He then asked for a picture. I showed him a picture and his response was "If you do not buy that right now, I will". Needless to say, I took his advice. He has since been a very valuable resource on other purchases as well as a great guy to have dinner with after the bourse is closed. I have very much enjoyed the relationships made at coin shows. There have not been many, but they have been important. I do not get to enough coin shows but the ones I have attended have been great.
Would love to go to coin shows but the only one for me is the yearly NYINC. Its always fun whether I buy the coins I see or not as its a joy to see some gorgeous coins up close. Plus I have bought some of my favorite coins from that show. Sadly I'm not much of a talker, so I haven't really had any connections to any dealers.
Doug, That Cartheginian AE is truly outstanding. I have a few coins that feel I paid too much for, but they always are worth it when I hold them in hand.
Thanks for the report, I enjoyed it. Better late than never! I was scratching my head for a minute before realising you probably meant Leukas rather than Larissa. It's a very lovely coin that I'd be happy to have in my little Colt stable.
My first coin shows took place at local gun shows. As a kid in the 1970's, gun shows were a regular destination what seems like every weekend with my dad. Nobody looked weird me that I went to them; it was part of our American culture still then. Aside from tables of full of all manner of guns, WWII and Vietnam war helmets & relics, knives, swords, ammunition, and other man/boy goodies there were often several tables of coin sellers. I won't call them Dealers; my recollection is that the were serious hobbyists like most of the gun owners who would rent a table like my dad and trade/sell duplicates or guns that had run their use in the collections. It was a social event as much as business and everyone knew everyone. We'd be there much of the day especially if my dad had a table selling guns. And then there was the gun show hot dogs. A sustenance staple at every event and something that casts a cold shadow on circus, movie theater or street corner dogs. Gun show dogs where the shizzle! It was a great experience growing up. I was greeted warmly at every table (I was under 10 at the time) and the coin sellers would invite me to sit and go though their boxes as long as I felt like it. I'd look for key date or, more importantly, US MINT errors which was my specialty. I tried to talk my dad into buying me key dates. The 1909s VDB penny never can home because it was $100! Doh!! When I was in 8th grade, I found a present under my Chrismas tree that ended up being several boxes of mint errors and several Whitman books with complete Jefferson nickle and Roosevelt Dime collections in them. The guy who I visited regularly at the gun shows over the yeas had been dying of cancer and he gave them to my dad to give to me for Christmas. He was dead by the time I got them and I still have them today in his boxes. Isn't that just freaking cool?! That was the first realization I ever had about the human impact we have on people as we move through life by realizing that I, just some kid, had enough of an impact on the old man that he wanted to make sure that I could continue to look through his boxes and enjoy his coins after cancer killed him and he was long gone. I owe him a payback someday and I haven't forgotten. I'm going to do him proud with someone who will carry the fire like I did for the better part of 40 Years.
Wonderful story! Carry the torch, pay it forward, create another great story! Life in its purist form...
