San Francisco Coin Show

Well thank you for those links and wonderful information, TIF! I can readily imagine him owning and operating that shop and business - it fits perfectly with his persona as I remember it.

 

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I've thought a bit about this in the last week. Bruce turned out to be a truly reprehensible character. So did his protege, Rob Freeman. But its really hard to reconcile what we knew (or know) about some of these guys. They were at the top of their game. The biggest names, and really, very nice guys. So how did it all collapse? Simple greed. And, I realize that there are plenty of people who had nothing but the greatest experiences with those guys. But, then, we were not on their radar for scamming the most money out of us. Some of us spent modest sums, some more than that. But they were after the 'whales', those who could spend hundreds of thousands, even millions.

I could swap some tales....

 

Yes. Ask the Hunt brothers about McNall......if they are still around.

 

Are there going to be any ancient dealers there?

 

I'll be there. I'm not sure at the moment, maybe Rich Pearlman and Lou Balesteri. Glenn Schinke is always there. It should be interesting. At the same venue in a different room is an antiquarian book sale, which includes ephemera, documents, books, etc. Read about it here:

http://www.nancyjohnsonevents.com/san-francisco.html

 

I'm not Ken but.....
Dr. Saslow once told me that the Eastern mint coins of Septimius Severus were not worth collecting because they were poor style and I should only buy the Rome mint coins he had. He had an 'Emesa' I wanted at a steep price for junk but he did not know what it was so I traded him a coin for it even up. We both thought the other was a fool so all was good. He always set up in Baltimore far from the other Ancient dealers so I rarely walked by his table. I have not seen him for a couple years.
One of TIF's links says he was an epidemiologist. Many ancient dealers had advanced degrees or were retired teachers of something not related. Not all were lifelong, full time coin sellers.

 

I cannot either, I am stuck with doing snow

 

I bought some choice Greek coins from Dr. Saslow at the FUN show in the early 90s. He allowed me to trade up some junkier coins I had bought earlier for nicer ones, which mot too many dealers want to do. He was a character but was willing to spend time explaining things to me. For a few years he would bring over a million dollars in Greek tetradrachms to the show so I would head to his table first.



John

 

Please let us know how it is. I can’t make it over to San Fran this weekend but it’s an easy flight for me and I’ve gone to several shows there.

 

Dr. Saslow is still around, to my knowledge. Last year, he set-up at an East Coast show that I regularly attend. I've never bought a coin from him, but I'll often look through his boxes and trays just in case.

He and Alan Walker engaged in a viscious, though somewhat amusing, war of words accross several issues of The Celator many years ago. A fun read, if you can ever track down the issues.

 

I'll be there on Sunday.

 

Nice to see you in person, Ken. I was there on Saturday morning. Great coin show, and was pretty packed. Happy to be able to hold the coins in hand, rather than clicking on computer screen. I'm glad to meet another CT member also, Hispanicus (hope I remember your CT name correctly).

Snapped a fast photo when I am leaving. Great experience. Hope I could spend time to go over some banknotes (had appointment). Will definitely attend other shows in the Bay Area.

 

It was great to see some CT members! There was one other, who was it? I am getting old I guess and I apologize for not mentioning who it was. Dave Michaels of CNG was there walking the floor. It was really great to see an old friend from the 'old days' of many years ago. He had great coins to show me, but alas I could not afford them. He did however show me one I thought was really nice, I showed it to my 15 year old son who responded with a non-committal shrug:



$65,000 and worth every penny. Dave was there to visit the San Francisco coin club where one lucky collector bought it (99% certain it was Cleo).

The next show out here will be Santa Clara in April, the second largest show in the west. Any members should make time to attend. We can get together an swap stories!

I wish I had taken some photos.

 

I bought this one from Ken at the show. Although the remains of the legend only read "I I I I I," I am fairly convinced that the obverse shows Santa Claus, while on the reverse we see an elf riding on Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer:



(Seriously, if anyone has an idea which reverse type this coin imitates, I'd be grateful for a hint.)