Early American Coppers convention log

Hey everybody !

This here is ya boy Ricky B reporting LIVE from the epicenter of Large Cent Happenings - the Early American Coppers convention in Cincinnatti !

I'll post up the remarkable events as they happen. Live it up !

 

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9am Thursday - A seminar entitled "Counterfeit Detection and Grading" taught by two guys with a combined 60+ years experience.

The thrilling climax - the class brought coins to pass around. Every student took a shot at grading every coin. When done, we went coin by coin and compared grades to the expert's grades ! VERY cool game.

Very HUMBLING game, I should say !

Actually, I did really well overall. Of the 23 coins, I matched the experts right on 11 times. I matched 'em within one grade one grade 5 times. Great... until we got to the last coin. #23. A Draped Bust large cent.

I said "WOW ! Great detail in the hair... or most of it. A shallow depression in the cheek, but not unsightly. Strong reverse.

Sharpness is 45, a few bangs and a rim bump... I give this one 35. Great coin !"

No. NOT great coin.

That detail in the hair was TOOLED IN. No wonder parts of the hair looked so much better than other parts !

That depression in the cheek ? There had been a major gouge and some one buffed it out. It looked like Liberty was sucking on a Lemon Sour. It removed the gouge, all right. With all the subtlety of a blitzing middle linebacker.

And I just zoomed right past it. OUCH.

Humbling. But cheap tuition ! Classes here are free ! YAY !!!

Lesson learned... DON'T GET COCKY. Stay awake.

Speed grading is like speed chess. You can rip through this at lightning speed, but you'll lose valuable material. Take your time. Think it through. Then make your move.

This here ya boy Ricky B - field correspondent at EAC 2009 sayin' OVAH and OUT !

 

Keep it up! :thumb:

I wish I could be there! Say howdy to everyone for me. :hail:

Ribbit

 

Wish I were there. Thanks for the log & please keep us updated!

 

p.s. I had a very similar experience with a whizzed coin -- IN an NGC holder.

 

1pm Thursday - Auction lot viewing !

This year's auction has ~500 lots. Last year's had ~650... 30% more than now. Here is the "big picture" :

Anything dated 1793: forget it. No 1/2c. The only chain 1c is Poor-1. Only the slightest hint of Libbie's visage, and only 4 links of the chain visible. An atrocious Wreath cent with a major planchet lamination. Looks like the back part of Libbie's skull was lost to a rocket-propelled grenade.

Half cents: Forget it. Very, very few. None interesting.

1794 Liberty Cap 1c: A staple of EAC, with more die varieties than any other date. In fact, an entire part of the club specializes in only these ! The "Boys of '94".

Well, the "Boys of '94" had little to choose from. Only 21 lots. The entire Cap 1c offering had only two to interest me.

Draped Bust : A glimmer of sunshine. A few nice ones.

Middle Dates: Plenty of nice ones - the meat of the auction.

I'm throwin' down some bids on some affordable, yet nice, Hard Times tokens.

Ricky B - ovah and out !!!

 

ya, sounds like fun. keep us up to date.

 

I know Tom Deck is there, so is Will Nipper and I haven't heard back from Jeff Rock so he should also be there. Say howdy to them for me. :hail:

Wish I was there and not here! :desk:

Ribbit

Ps: Just start going "Ribbit" and see what happens?

 

Nice report - wish I could make it as close as I am. Sigh....

 

Yep.... he co-taught the Grading Seminar ! Cool dude.

So I hear. Haven't caught up to him yet.

I tried that... they threatened to throw me out !!!!

They said either I knew H-Toad... or I WAS H-Toad !!! Either way. I had to go !

 

7pm Thursday - The Reception !

OK... so the morning Grading Seminar had this scholarship Young Numismatist student. The kind of guy that talks for 10 seconds and you realize the dude is brilliant. For real.

The teacher said "WE GOT A KID IN HERE !!!" and he blushed red as a radish.

So I approached him and his dad at The Reception and told him "Some of us won't call you a "kid". I'll call you a Young Man !"

This, of course, ingratiated me to his dad, so they accepted my offer to join us for dinner.

Free food ! Free wine ! Free beer ! By gawd, there's gonna BE some deals now, pal !

Anyway, I chat up the YN for about 10 minutes. The youngster has memorized every die variety of all half cents and large cents... well over 350 die marriages. He is wheelin' and dealin' with the big boys... and won't won't be old enough for a driver's license for almost 3 years !

So I figure "This dude is way too smart for me. I'll chat up his dad."

Turns out his dad taught history at Brown and Johns Hopkins. Now I got TWO geniuses on my hands !

We chatted for over two hours. Awesome time.

 

8:30pm Thursday: The Happenings !

After dinner, we all split up into four groups - Colonial guys, Half Cent guys, Large Cent guys, and Early Silver guys. We call 'em "Happenings".

I go with the Silver peeps, Robin goes with the Colonial crew.

Before the Convention, they pick certain die varieties and ask everybody to bring 'em if they got 'em. For instance, all the Large Cent guys bring their S-4 chain cents, S-10 Wreath cents, S-65 Liberty Caps, S-199 Draped Bust, and so on.

The Large Cent guys have a competition... everybody walks through and ranks all the specimens of each variety.

Tally up the points, award a winner.

But the Silver guys did it very differently.

One of the Early Silver Happenings was to take all the 1834 10c JR-6 coins and check out the differences between coins struck from the same pair of dies.

Differences ? What differences ? Excluding circulation wear, shouldn't coins struck from the same dies be the same ?

NO... because the dies themselves wear down and have die cracks and cuds.

With brand new dies, one expects sharp details. As the die wears, we see die cracks. Those cracks get worse as time goes on, ultimately forming cuds.

And here's the deal... By looking at the coins, we can see the various stages of die degradation. Some brand new dies, some very old terminal state dies.

That means we can determine the order the coins were struck ! We reconstruct the emission sequence of coins minted 175 years ago, and line 'em up - 30 or so.

In the case of 1834 10c JR-6, we see two cuds form as the die cracks worsen - both on the reverse, at 12 o'clock* and 5 o'clock**. As time goes on, both cuds worsen. The 12 o'clock widens, slowly removing letters from the word STATES until the word is almost gone

And then something very odd happens... it appears the 5 o'clock cud gets worse, but the word STATES reappears !

How can that be ?

What do you think happened ?




* where the word STATES resides
** where the arrowheads are
As expected, we see the

 

Hi 900, thank for your entertaining report on this, the Mecca (or Jerusalem) for copper enthusiasts.

I won't say wish I was there and sad that I cannot, being so far away and stuck with mundane things like going to work.
But still, I got someone there looking out for an S-104 or 103 for me; i hope he's been able to find one.

Regards,

Eduard

 

Jeff Rock finally got back to me and said he didn't make it this year, he's home with the flu.

Tom Deck is one kewl dude! And he knows his coppers! :thumb:

As to Will, he's hanging with the Colonial dudes so that's where you'll find him.

Lastly, how dare them throw the toad out! :goof: Tell'em I'm coming next year and to get the mops ready!!!!

Keep the reports coming, I'm enjoying them immensely! :thumb:

Ribbit

 

Thursday night - Celebrity Party Marathon !

Well, I gotta tell ya... Thursday night, Da Boyz were in rare form.

After an amazing day, we were headed back to our hotel room when my wife Robin gets a bright idea. "Hey ! Why don't we stop by the pub for a little nightcap ?" she asks me.

Whoooo boy.

Well, we belly up to the bar. About the time they deliver me a nice cold frosty, The Boys of '94 show up. I'm not gonna drop any names, but all the Playahs were there.

I recognize one fellow - he sold his personal Large Cent collection a while back. More than $10 million.

Anyway, Robin didn't know him (an older gentleman), but she noticed his Early American Coppers name badge and says "hi". He sits down next to us and we had this wonderful chat for about 45 minutes. Very friendly and convivial. Maybe even just a little bit of silliness was going around...

Before long, we had met everyone in the place. Many big names. The guys who have entire auction catalogs named after them. The guys who write the catalogs. The book authors. The big dealers... and small dealers as well. An all-star cast !

And here's what gets me...

Let's say you like movies. Are you ever gonna rub elbows with the big stars ? No.

How about sports ? Are you ever gonna hang with the All-Pro Hall of Famers ? No.

But in numismatics, you can. Easy. You don't have to be a Playah. I'm not.

But this EAC thing is amazing. The true giants are everywhere, but you wouldn't know it by their personalities. All very friendly and approachable. They love to chat about their hobby just like you and I do.

So, no lie, there I was.... average guy like me, asking the Hall of Famers their personal strategies. How do you inspect a coin ? What do you look for ? How did you get started ? Where do you find the best stuff ? Why do dogs have black lips ? (just wanted to see if you were still reading)

Anyway, what an awesome bunch of guys. Truly a great time was had by all !

Field Correspondent Ricky B - aka ya boy Lil' Slick - ovah and OUT !!!

 

That sounds like a true learning experience and must have been great to have all those coins together to do that. I am guessing restamped STATES? What do you think?

 

is this Tom Deck a real estate agent. That's one of my uncles names that I don't see very often. Probably not him.

 

Sounds like you had an awesome time. I know I would have. That's crazy cool that you were chillin with the pros.

 

If Copper Clem was with them, then the party only gets weirder as time goes on. :goofer: You should have stuck around and closed the joint, that's when it's the best.

Ribbit

 

We need an update! I'm dying here! :goofer:

Ribbit