A brief glance at FUN 2017

I know @Deacon Ray would have loved this particular Exhibition.

 

Log in or Sign up to hide this ad.

Thanks for these pictures, Sallent. They're great fun to look at for those of us who have very few opportunities to attend coin shows.

 

cpm9ball is looking great and we got to walk the show a bit. After that NGC bought us a great lunch. As usual we had our own coin show and tell at the table. You need to join us next year.

 

I'm drinking vodka. I spell it diffrant.

 

Sorry as the devil that I missed you guys. Next year in Tampa for sure.......

 

Thanks for the great pictures and write up Sallent! That is one of the best show reports I have seen with all the great pictures you included.

I find that you have to hunt to the combination of coin you want/price you want to pay at shows. I tend to look for the coins I have never seen before and you don't often find for sale online. Most dealers tell me the really good stuff they get never gets posted online because they already know who they will sell it to when they buy it, either at a show or through a phone call. This does not always mean high priced either, although a lot of that stuff gets sold without ever being listed as well.

There are also dealers who don't do ebay or vcoins, don't have websites, don't print price lists but have great coins. James Beach is one of those. I bought my Rhegion tetradrachm in my avatar from him at last year's FUN show. The only way I would ever have seen it would be at the show. Then I could pick it up and look at it in hand (very impressive). I doubt I would have bought it from just a photo.

I usually pick up a lot of really inexpensive coins at shows that are not worth the cost to list and sell online, then have fun figuring out what they are when I get home. It helps to go year after year so people get to know you and what you are looking for.

 

Yeah, I don't collect modern coins, only ancient and medieval. That doesn't mean I don't appreciate modern coin collectors...because I do. However, when I go to a show like this one, I go for the ancient coins, so the rest is all just white noise and statics to me. Likewise, I'm sure some modern collectors saw the ancient coins and said to themselves "How do I get out of this area and back to the good stuff?"

 

Please educate us. Why don't you start by telling us what qualifies you to tell us how to collect ancient coins.

 

Did the caption say the Julius Caesar was a reproduction? I don't think it is ancient.

 

I have never told anyone how or what to collect. You missed what was said.

 

great pics sallent, thanks for sharing those!

 

I don't remember the caption, but I do believe it's a reproduction.

 

I have never been to the Winter FUN show, but did manage to attend Summer FUN
(in spite of the heat!!!) on two occasions in the recent past.
My impression was pretty much the same as yours: lots of U.S coinage, as expected (much of it in plastic), relatively few dealers in ancient and world coinage, (relegated to the last two aisles on the right).
In general I found prices for ancients and world coins at FUN to be high. Quite a bit higher than I would expect to pay at shows in Germany. Yes, most dealers were willing to negotiate, but here again the margin for negotiation was smaller than it is my experience in Europe. At the end, I always bought a few coins at FUN, but not because the coins were 'good deals', but rather not to return home empty-handed.

 

Wow, I can sense the intense geek-factor from here!!



Great photo-effort (thanks for the sweet tour of the show) ... sadly, I'm fairly sure that'll be as close as I ever get to actually joining-in with you fellas (I'm sure I would get swept-up in the coin-hoopla and I'd end-up making a few purchases that I'd regret later) ... especially if there was a beer garden nearby!!

Thanks again for the tour

 

Nice recap of the FUN show, Counselor. Even if there aren't a lot of ancients, it sure beats a day at the office I bet! Coin shows are FUN!

I'm trying to get to NY again for the NYINC show after my flight was cancelled due to snow yesterday. Maybe I'll take some pics and post them up here if I'm not too distracted by the tables and tables of ancients, of course.

 

Thanks for the show report, Sallent

I've only been to two shows, ANA summer 2014 and CICF 2016. They were fun but it is extremely expensive for me to attend shows, plus I hate haggling and apparently that is expected. Can't say I've succeeded in acquiring many bargains at shows... perhaps a few, but some of my worst "overpaids" were from those two shows, especially before I knew haggling was expected.

I'd like to attend one show every year if I can do so without huge travel expenses. Meeting the dealers is fun and seeing various coins in hand is good experience, as is lotviewing for the big auctions.

In general though I prefer buying coins at auction, with the ease of internet research for valuation, etc.

I'm trying to fly home after a couple of weeks with my mom in TX. The cold weather delayed my first flight 3 hours which means I'll miss the next two connecting flights and there are no later flights on the final leg. The whole thing had to be rebooked until tomorrow and of course I lost my good seats .

 

It is not the only one but it is hard to tell from the photos. Was that really a 'rare' sestertius of Otho? My favorite has to be the 'semi-unique' Domitian. That allows it to be semi-genuine as well.

We see it all the time here. You simply can not generalize about sources. At shows, one table will have fair prices and people waiting their turn to get a seat at the table. Next to it will be a lonely dealer with no lookers and fewer buyers. In some cases this is completely intentional since it leaves room for people who are at the show to sell their coins. It is harder to buy nice coins at a good price than to sell them. I am sure that many dealers do most of their business with other dealers. Some sell a thousand coins at a show to make the same amount others do on one. Do we not see the same thing on eBay? If my heirs took my collection to a show, there would be someone there willing to buy it and others willing to buy part of it from him (only the good part or the junk box part). I rarely attend a show I do not see a 'vest pocket' dealer offering his coins to a tabled dealer. At the last Baltimore show I saw one I did not know failing at more than one table. My correspondence with others here on CT suggest to me that there is a difference between shows in Baltimore and those in California or, now, Florida.

I do not know Theodosius but I suspect his show experiences are as close to mine as any I have heard. You most certainly do have to hunt for a combination of the coins you want and the prices you'll pay. I believe they say you have to kiss a lot of frogs before you find....

...and I hate myself when this happens. It is really hard to drive a few hours to a show and drive home again with your only purchase being lunch.

 

Nice write-up S!

Price and selection support your thought. I hope you are not right because I enjoy talking coins with the people I see at coin shows. I try to buy from dealers who attend coin shows in the Houston area. We have half a dozen shows a year +/- a few and I saw a dozen dealers of ancient coins in the group of 50 - 100 other dealers. Our youth auctions are one way to lower the average age of coin collectors.

TIF, when you schedule your next visit to Texas, check coinshows.com and make the trips overlap. I'd like to see your crack-em-out shirt in Houston. The next show is Jan 20-21, 2017.

PS - this young man traded me a gift certificate he bought in the youth auction to have a coin slabbed for a Roman As. I think that was a great trade!

I hope to see you there. I will attend this year for the first time. Hope I return without frost-bite.

 

This coin confuses me. First, there were no imperial bronzes of Julius Caeser, but the type and style of this coin would seem to indicate that it's an imperial mint.

Second, the obverse legend starts with "C CAESAR" which is typically the legend for Caligula's coinage, where the first C was understood to be the G from (G)AIUS CAESAR.

So is this a restoration issue from Caligula? Doubtful, since there are no such coins listed in RIC. Is it a fantasy reproduction? Why is it labeled "Rare" when it may not, in fact, be an actual ancient coin? Any ideas?