For those interested who may be within driving distance of Wausau WI, the annual coin show, sponsored by the Wisconsin Valley Coin Club, will be held Sunday, August 8, 2021. Normally this show is held in the spring but Covid forced cancellation last year and it to be delayed this year. It would be nice to see any fellow CT members there. Heck, I'll even buy you a drink!
How many tables are at this show typically? I'm five hours away but looking for an excuse to take a mini vacation!
The Annual (skip last year due to covid) Wausau Coin Show is only one week away. In my earlier comments I mentioned that I thought that there were 56 tables. I believe the number is 37. Bob, from Schofield Coins, mentioned to me that he just purchased a large collection which includes many mint state Mercury dimes. These were collected and put away many years ago. The collection included many other late 19th and 20th century silver series coins. I'm looking forward to seeing what was in the collection. This show is sponsored by the Wisconsin Valley Coin Club. Along with a coin raffle (gold, silver, and bronze coins to celebrate the Olympics), there will be free hourly coin drawings for both kids and adults.
The Wausau Annual Coin Show was held today and was a great success for both buyers and dealers. The bourse was busy all day. Normally the show is held in late April but after missing a year due to Covid the show was pushed to today. I think a lot of us were unsure how many would attend since this is peak tourist season up here in northern Wisconsin; people are generally more interested in spending time outdoors. One of my highlights was looking at coins from a collection a local dealer recently purchased. Most of the collection was put together prior to 1949. After the man passed away in 1949 it was inherited by his son who passed it on to his children who recently sold it. Included in the collection were numerous mint state and proof liberty seated quarters. Several of the proofs had incredible blue toning along with several nice cameos. In addition to these, there were many nice standing liberty quarters and mercury dimes. I wish now that I would have purchased at least one of the liberty seated quarters as most were sold quickly. It was encouraging seeing how well the show went for both the buyers and dealers. One dealer told me that it was both good and bad: good since he sold a lot of coins, bad because now he has to try to replace a lot of his inventory.
Here's an 1876 IHC I bought for my IHC set at the show from a dealer from Old World Coin in McHenry, IL. The images are of the coin when it was sold in a Great Collections auction a year and a half ago. Nice coin, great dealer!
I would have loved to have seen those seated liberty proofs. Every time I hear 'Wausau' I'm reminded of the old insurance commercial where the lady pronounces it "Warsaur". Her colleague corrects her, saying it's 'Wausau' and she responds "that's what I said, Warsaur". I don't remember anything from college but I remember ancient commercials from defunct insurance companies.
What I found exciting was that those coins were kept out of the market for 72 years. I wonder how many "fresh" coins are still out there.
Yep, and I'm sure they're out there. As your story points out, an amazing collection can lay dormant for a generation or two.