Here it is September already and sadly, the last Long Beach CS&C Expo of the year has come to a close! Looking back on my first Expo report of this year: https://www.cointalk.com/threads/feb-2017-long-beach-coin-expo-report-or-something-like-it.291728/ You might say that not a whole lot has changed....and if that IS your immediate conclusion, well, you'd be right! Yes, there was no Violent Volatility in the PM market, Horrific Housing crunches or Chaos in Crude to drive speculation. The age of flash & crash "super modern rarities" from the US Mint seems to have run out of steam as well. Perhaps the golden era of collecting by true enthusiasts shall be upon us again......at least until a 10k mintage, fractional gold Susan B. Anthony in denominations of 5-Cents, 10-Cents & 25-Cents rears its ugly head! Before then however, I invite you along to enjoy some of our trip to the show! Long Beach is a beautiful City with so much to see & do, in fact, in this first shot you might notice the cranes from the Port of Long Beach, the dome where the Spruce Goose had been held and the Queen Mary's 3 smoke stacks dotting the horizon. If we could pan the photo a bit to the left, you'd see a group of people doing yoga...but I preferred this scene for our report. Those images don't paint a sufficient picture of the true scale of the Long Beach Convention Center, but at least you get an idea. Now lets head inside....down the entry way; Past the Heritage Auction suites... Then onto the bourse floor... Our first stop is to visit Jeff Garrett & his wife to talk and see a few of their rarities for sale. NICE STELLA!!! Then off to the US Mint Booth....near the back....were the food is, because we're also rather hungry for lunch The newest offering from the US Mint was their 5oz Ellis Island ATB puck!
But far more interesting than the pucks (to me) was the collection of pre-release Liberty Silver Medals......though what you'll mainly see in this photo is a reflection of your photographers shirt! Now on to some real eye-candy!!!! Will the eye-candy NEVER stop?!?!?! Who is this handsome devil taking a selfie?!! (LOL) Ok, ok, on a more serious note, the show always features some world-class coins and today we had the opportunity to view a 1783 Nova Constellatio As well as some world-class collections!
Beyond being able to view & purchase coins which might not otherwise be available, truly the best part of going to these shows is getting to learn from some of the best collectors & dealers in numismatics. I had the privilege of having one of my coins assessed by the founder of PCGS, David Hall at the PCGS booth. Then went over to see Rick Snow with Eagle Eye Rare Coins What coin show would be complete without a visit to Charmy Harker's booth? And yes, that is Rick Snow hanging around out front....those Penny People stick together! Some of you will know this coin shop / dealer booth better than others. A person by the name of Amanda Varner (https://lifeatthecoinshop.com/) worked with them...she had a surprisingly large online presence while she was in the coin business (especially here on CT) and I like to stop by and say "Hi" to those folks. I have a couple fairly rare So-Called Dollars and knew another CT member had owned 1 or 2 in the past.....so I brought them along to get an opinion Thank you Michael Kittle for your time! Behind his booth is Todd Pollock......but he seems busy, so I take a little time to snag a few pictures of paper money for those of you who might like that fiat stuff! Many more coins, many more dealers & many more stories to tell, but time goes by all too quickly in typing as well as visiting coin shows, so I must end it now. My friend Jeff pointed this one out and we agreed it might have been one of the most beautiful rainbow toned Barber coins around, so I shall close this thread with a shot of it.....enjoy!
I managed to buy a few things too, but packed light in terms of cash. It is a cardinal sin to attend a coin show with less than $500.....and I am guilty. New additions include a nice rainbow toned AU/BU 1883 N/C V-Nickel for $17, a 1945- Micro S Merc in AU-BU for $17, a Library of Coins vintage Commemoratives album for $3 and a new Regan C&C set from the Mint. It has the edge lettering ASE and shouldn't be available for much longer.
Wow, i love seeing what its like at these big shows. With the big names and big price tags wokka wokka. I had a whole stack of those library of coins folders, along with a few small wayte raymond albums. Hmmm where did i put those things