Featured There and Back Again, My ANA Chicago 2014 WFM Tale

I hadn't heard of the guy with the "fake timestamp" gig going on, but I distinctly remember on Tuesday morning the Mint/ANA/Someone's bright idea of "marking the 500 people who got in" was to take a black sharpie and make an X on their hand, like that wasn't a system rife for abuse!

 

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Amanda:

I spoke to someone on line and during the night a bus load of folks arrived.

When they saw the handwritten #'s, they sent someone to a local store (I heard a 7-11) to buy a marker and stood there and wrote the numbers on their hands.

The cops were called & they were ejected.

 

While I'm happy to hear they were caught, how many do you think weren't? How many number 210's showed up, and how do you know which one had the legit stamp and which were the counterfeits?? What an absolute mess.

 

Sometimes if you've known someone only through the interweb, meeting them in person can be disappointing. Not Amanda, she is an awesome person!

As far as the coins.......you would have been in that line too! Received $3k for my 1st and $2,250 for the 2nd which is a pretty spectacular chunk of change for coins with an unlimited mintage. After travel expenses, I figure I left about 1/4 of the profits on the floor and the rest will go into coins too.

 

Awh geez, thank you! I had a lot of fun with the "300 club", too! And I can't believe it turns out AJ was like 5 people behind you!!

 

Also, check your inbox @Travlntiques / Ryan!

 

Glad you made money flipping them and buying "real" coins I'd have likely done the same. Passing time for me would have been made easier with a bottle to pass around

 

Holy smokes, good catch! It's a very obscure reference!
When I made it home, I felt like Frodo returning to the Shire after the battles in that everything was calm and peaceful. No one knew what we had been through. lol

 

For such a great report I made you this......

 

I should really print ones up that say "I survived the Kennedy Madness at the Chicago ANA."

 

It's actually funny that y'all should mention t-shirts, because the layover in Dallas gave me a chance to visit the DFW Gas Monkey Bar and Grill and buy a shirt from one of my favorite TV shows "Fast and Loud"

 

I love that show too!

 

Wow! What a coin fair! If ever I cross the waters to go to the States I would just love the experience of going to one of those conventions.

 

Based on the inventory available, these World's fair of money events seem pretty incredible. This one was no less than legendary for me and I'd welcome the chance to do it again! If that should ever happen.

 

I like the different perspective of this report

 

Great report & liked your photo of the line. I'm about 200+ people in front of you just where the trees start besides the building. Think only about 40 or so people behind me made the cut to get the gold. Had the # 419 written on my hand by the guy doing this. Not a bad Idea, even if it / he wasn't "Official". But then there was the contingent of people about 100 ahead of me that kept sneaking others into line. Must have been 5-6 of them that all had the number 325! All things work out for the best though... once we were all inside & waiting to get into the final Q, someone went to the security personnel with a photo of what the line had looked like before & after they all snuck in. And security proceeded to throw out about 30 of the culprits. Think someone could write a book about all the adventures at this years ANA.

 

This is the US Mint that we're talking about. Some dealer is bound to notice that the post-Chicago WFM releases have a different W or something similar, after some Mint personnel decide that the rest of the unlimited release should bear a different font Westpoint mark. Then, after buying up all the unslabbed "Chicago" coins, telling sellers that the only way to know they were from Chicago would be the Chicago slabs, there will be an announcement that someone discovered the Chicago coins had the special mark. They've done it before, and they'll do it again.

 

Chicago again next year.