FUN: A Thaler, a dollar, and pickles

Got back from 2 1/2 days at the FUN show Sunday morning. A good time, as always. I got to meet up with the usual band of VAMpires while there, as well as some I hadn't met before, saw a lot of familiar faces from here, and met a few for the first time. The PCGS luncheon was mostly good , and I got to finally meet and chat with the new PCGS President, Brett Charville. VAM Thing XVI on Friday included a rather detailed presentation on the goings on at the San Francisco mint when the first Morgans were made in April 1878, prepared by Pete Burchfield and David McCarthy, an intro to Seated dollars by Dick Osburn, and some annual awards. The table I was camped at for the show was right next to Kagin's, which for an hour or so on Saturday, turned into a VAMpire hangout, with a few of us passing around and analyzing 1878-S dollars with David. While hanging out there, I spotted a coin that would fit in my Prime Number Set -- a 1613/2 Teutonic Order Thaler and struck a deal to bring it home.



The dollar I picked up from James Sego was also for my set, but the more recent end of it. A nice, flashy 1973 clad Ike in 65 with a QA sticker.



I did the grading challenge at NGC, and got a souvenir Florida quarter. I found out at 3 on Saturday that I finished in the top 10 in the grown-ups division, but I don't know where I finished or what the other fabulous prize was. The coins in the challenge were quite varied -- US, foreign, errors, problems.



Pickles? Indeed! Those of you who were there and wandered into the "cheap seats" (budget section) may have noticed a bunch of jars of pickles at Doc's Coins' table. They are not just any pickles. They are "Doc & Lulu's Sweet & Spicy Polish Dills." Well worth the investment. I opened the jar Saturday around lunchtime and shared with whomever wanted one. Two "best pickle ever" comments from the Kagin's table. They elevated the convention center hot dogs such that one didn't mind that it took forever for the vendor to prepare their epicurean masterpieces by carefully placing a hand-selected, steamed tube steak into a presumably artisanal bun that apparently needed time to breathe and acclimate to its paper serving dish for a while before it was deemed suitable for use, much as one allows a big red wine to "open up" before serving. Rumor has it that Doc and Lulu will have pickles in Baltimore.



Upon returning home Sunday morning, it was time to take my daughter back to Champaign, IL, for her last semester there. Maybe I'll unpack when I get home from work today.

 

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Came to see the pickles. Stayed for the coins

 

Well done on making it to top 10! Did you get the sample for participating or making the top 10?

That happens to be my FAVORITE Thaler of all time. I love that Teutonic Order design. That reverse is amazing and yours seems to have survived a bit of wear and still shows a lot of detail. Beautiful colors. Should you ever feel the need to part with it, you know how to reach me!

 

It was for participating. I got an email at 3 on Saturday telling me to pick up my prize for top 10, but didn't get to their booth by 3:30, so whatever the prize is will be mailed to me.

 

Dang! I'll bet those pickles would make a great garnish for a Bloody Mary!

Thanks for the show update, Mr. B!

Chris

 

Awesome, I hope you'll update your prize here so we can all enjoy it.

 

Congrats on the Top 10! Not much of a surprise to me though. At NYINC, the "regular" NGC was there, but the Paris office of PCGS was on hand.

 

"Not enough gin."

 

Thank you for the report JB and congrats on filling a couple of spots in your prime numbers.

I do have a question, were the VAM Thing presentations taped? They sound like very interesting subjects.

 

David Lisot recorded the educational seminars, which included VAM Thing. An SSDC member was also recording it. I'm not sure when or where either will be made available.

 

All his stuff is available at www.cointelevision.com. If you look close enough, and LONG enough, you just might encounter a V. Kurt Bellman talk or four.

 

I bet those pickles would go GREAT minced up in my tuna salad. Yummy!!
Oh...and to keep this 'legal' - Congrats on coming in within the top 10 on the grading challenge!

 

I am liking that Thaler. Seeing the pickles made me want a hot dog.

 

Great coins, and sounds like you had a great time.

Can you tell us a little bit more about the goings-on at the blue-label plastic company?

 

I wasn't even there and I can tell you - "self-delusion".

 

Great show report.

 

First, the new president, Brett Charville, introduced himself and some of the others in attendance. No fee increases for 2019, slight shipping cost decrease. They're coming down on coin docs, including banning them from submitting, but didn't go into details. The biggest part of the presentation was that there were a lot of superficial changes being done with the registry and CoinFacts. The registry will have more socializing functionality built into it, encouraging people to look at others' coins and interact with other collectors, and participating in some drawings that start today. The one CoinFacts change that set everyone on edge was the removal of the "view all images" button. Needless to say, almost nobody took this well. The reason given was collector privacy, but not everyone is buying that. It seems, based on what is happening on the PCGS forum, that he's going to look into this further, with his latest message saying that it was best to "...put the image galleries into 'time out.'" After the luncheon, I spoke with Brett about their plan to start using external consultants for variety attribution, told him about my attribution business and gave him my card.

 

When I saw the pickles in the title, I had to click.

Joked aside, thanks for the info.

 

Can't get good pickles in the stores out here. So I have been making my own the last few years. 3/4 sour garlic dill. This last batch is unbelievable.

 

I used to pickle my own jalapeños, that I grew myself, but I had to give that up when I went "urban".