The 63rd annual ISNA show was held this Thursday through Saturday. My wife and I play a big part in putting on the show. After 20+ years in Indianapolis it was moved to Muncie, IN this year because of problems with the venue. Admittedly, attendance was down but that normally happens with a change of venue. It's a beautiful location. When asked most dealers had a decent to good show. There were a number of high dollar transactions that took place. My main "job" during the show was manning the ANA table. During the show I signed up 7 new members. 6 of them were YN's recruited during Saturday's scavenger hunt. If you are into high end bourbon, there was a dealer displaying some good stuff. I spoke to him a bit and apparently has a 6 figure annual business in this trade as well as coins. Of course, I purchased some new items. The "prize" for me was this 1632 Thaler from the German State Erfurt. I will try to write up some more on it in the next couple of weeks. This was purchased from Ken Hollister of Moneta. A couple of other purchases from Ken are going to require some more research on my part. He described one as Russian patterns. At the price, I couldn't pass them up. Next up is a nice 7 piece silver 2019 Libertad set. Only 125 sets were made. The last 2 items for me were a pair of medals purchased from Paul Cunningham. The first one was a Lincoln medal that I hadn't seen before. The other is a Lusitania medal. I already had one but this one may be special. Hopefully I will be able to explain more at a later date. All in all I feel like it was a successful show for both myself and the club. As always, there was a lot of good stuff at the show.
My favorite part of the show was my wife. If you ask her she will say that she doesn't collect coins. Well, to start with she is turning into quite the Civil War Token collector. Ken Hollister had a box of them. I told her to pick out what she wanted and it could be added to my bill. She picked out 10. The 11th one was purchased at another table. The 2 next pictures are other items she picked out throughout the show. The copper and nickel pieces are some stuff that a dealer practically gave her.
Thanks for the report. Some really nice buys. The Erfurt thaler looks great. I've dealt with Ken at some of the the ANA shows I've attended. He has a large inventory and lots of variety. His prices are more than fair. In the last 10 years of collecting, he had a coin I needed for my collection. First time I've added a coin from a show in awhile. Get your wife to share some of her CWT collection. Many here would be interested.
Looks like a successful first timer at the new venue. Good luck moving forward. Also tagging @ldhair to make sure he sees your Lincoln medal.
Paul always has some cool Lincoln items. His table is always my first stop. I had to look this one up in his book. I have never seen one.
He is a great guy. I like that he has stuff for any level of collector. Alot of dealers at shows like this only have expensive stuff which can turn off the public. The medal is huge. It's not with me currently but it is around 77mm and 120 grams (going from memory). He had a note that it is more common in silver but I haven't seen one of those either.
Paul has been a big help to me over the years. Honest answers and fair prices. He let me talk him out of a fake Lincoln plaque a few years ago. He trusted me to be honest if I ever sold it. I'll be seeing him in January at FUN.
Looks like a great show! The size of the show seems perfect for a good day. And your bourbon dealer friend is missing the good stuff