ANA Summer Seminar

Enjoy dear fellows.........

 

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First day went well. Flight was ok. Settled in, met @Aidan_(), went to the show and hung out with Dan for a bit. Good times. Grabbed his 1915 set cuz he has some on him and I only got the 1922 set when they were released. Can't wait for the learnin' to start tomorrow

Good thing I brought some coins to vam cuz these rooms have no tv

 

Now you know why I have the time to do it.

 

I would love to attend Ken Bressette's class on Roman Republic coinage. It would be great to hear from the DEAN OF COINS.

 

I am new to this forum but look forward to learning from you guys.

 

A friend of mine is taking the byzantine class, YN. Pretty sure he's the only YN, so give him a friendly welcome

 

Would he maybe be the guy who started this thread?

 

Luckily I figured out how to stream my Verizon service to my phone. Didn't bring enough Morgan's I guess

 

@Cascade needs to collect real coins... Hrum, ancients!

 

Hahaha. You so funny aidan! Have fun pounding some metal!

 

And that's real money.

 

Nah, different guy.

 

Yeah, if you're playing Medieval Monopoly

 

I had a ton of fun taking Steve Roach's class on numismatic publishing. Superb people and I hope to be back next year!

 

Boy am I getting to meet some big names in Morgan's and numismatics in general plus some cool coin geeks. It helps that I'm the gregarious type though. Summer seminar is pretty cool. I highly suggest it!

 

I just finished the excellent mini-seminar "Making Money the Medieval Way." Anyone interested in medieval coinage will gain a new appreciation for just how much effort and skill went into making these seemingly crude pieces.

First the class made their own die punches by grinding small metal spikes down to a flattened point. Then everyone received a cylindrical piece of steel, the die, to polish on various grades of sandpaper (320, 500, 1000, 1500). By the end of the polishing process one end of the steel rod had a mirrored surface. This was divided into four sections upon which two circles were drawn.

Then came the planning for the coin's text and an inner design. Using about a half dozen punches of various types, light hammer taps sank shapes into the mirrored dies. Things soon began to look very medieval. When people completed punching their dies, they went outside to a stump and had their designs hammered into aluminum, silver, brass and even small billon planchets.

Punching dies is exhausting work and many people thought their dies looked horrible when finished. "You should have seen our first dies," both instructors said. But most people produced legible text and interesting designs. Regardless, the whole point wasn't really the end product, but experiencing and appreciating the process. Making high quality dies can take years of practice and this class will get anyone started along on that fascinating road. It also leaves one wondering just how medieval die makers and minters created coins with such limited tools. These mostly anonymous people remain highly under-appreciated artists now mostly lost to history. The class clearly shows that they had a difficult and highly skilled job.

Highly recommended and great instructors. Hopefully the ANA will include the class again next year.

 

you want pm me his name.

I was in that class, a lot harder than I anticipated. But enjoyable.

 

Summer Seminar is absolutely, positively THE place to be!! Two years ago I took Grading US Coins part 1, this year I took Grading US Coins part 2. The instructors,
John Schuch (NGC) Steve Feltner (professional numismatist, and former grader,
Professional Coin Grading Service; and David McCarthy (gold coin specialist and senior numismatist at Kagin’s) were amazing! They explained everything, and are totally accessible. With John and Steve being from two different grading services and David a high end dealer from Kagin's (David did all the conservation for and was the front man with the Saddle Ridge Hoard) they don't always agree on grades and the banter between them is hilarious. They have instructed together at Summer Seminar for five or so years. The class is so good there are students in there for their 2nd, 3rd and 4th time. The instructors take a week off and volunteer their time because of their true love of numismatics.
You want to sit down and have breakfast, lunch or dinner with Ken Bressett, just go sit down at his table. I hung out at the Luner Lounge with PCGS co-founder John Dannreuther for hours. Spent three hours with two top coin guys in an informal 'Bull Session" on 'So You Want To be a Coin Dealer'. One of them high up in the corporate world of coins and the other an extremely successful independent and one of the top graders out there (2nd in PCGS World Series of Grading). They answered any and all questions the group had, the session was slotted for one hour and we, the group, were the ones that finally let these guys go three hours later at 11:30 at night, they would have stayed as long as we wanted them to.
First night, a guy sits down at our dinner table, probably 4 guys there. As we talk he sees the excitement I have for coins, ends up he is one of the very first PCGS graders and an instructor for both weeks at the Summer Seminar. After everyone else left the table to go to opening ceremonies we stayed and talked, he cared more about my interest in coins then being introduced as an instructor at the opening ceremonies. He then invited me up to his room were he pulled out boxes of slabbed Morgan's and Peace dollars, all beautiful (in my eyes) PCGS and NGC MS 65's. As I grabbed each coin he would ask "What's wrong with that coin?"
Even though they were all in 65 holders there was a problem. Sometimes it would take 5 minutes for me to find the problem that could only be seen from one deeply tilted angle; coins been thumbed, baking soda'd, over dipped, a spot has been removed, a fresh hairline across the cheek that you cannot see for several minutes then you hit the angle just right and a bright fresh scratch screams at you from a nice originally toned coin. As a former professional grader his reason for the bright fresh scratch was that it happened from handling at the grading service. This went on for hours! He then pulled out stuff, most of which I had never seen. As I examined each piece with my mouth hanging open the words most often out of his mouth were, 'That's the finest known example.' I finally came to a piece I recognized and I said, "Hey, I've seen a piece like this on the cover of a Bower's book!" He the said, 'That IS the coin you saw on the cover.'
So that is what Summer Seminar is all about. Next year I plan on attending both weeks. I cannot recommend SS highly enough!!

 

YN bids are flyin' tonight!

 

During the auction tonight, I got to meet @messydesk and @Oysterk a pleasure meeting them.