I just came back from the GNA show today (yesterday). It was actually my first time going to that show. It was nice meeting up with old friends and making new friends. The main reason I was there was because I was invited to give a talk on modern Chinese counterfeits of US coins. It was very well received and seemed to be the most popular talk of the show. I was invited to talk again at future shows as well as at the FUN show. Afterwards, I spent my time scouring out ancients dealers, as well as eyeballing some of the US eye candy. I saw many really cool ancient coins, but almost all were way out of my price range (<$100) and generally were not in the areas I was particularly interested in (Ancient Chinese, hammered western European medieval silvers). One dealer let me look through his amazing inventory of Greek silvers, despite knowing that I was not able to buy anything, and we had a great conversation about them. In all, I got the following coins for a total of $165. I also bought a set of 1975 NASA souvenir Apollo medals for my dad (not pictured). I think I did fairly well. There was only a small handful of (genuine) ancient Chinese coins to be found. I bought most of them: I really liked the knife, and the style was different from those already in my collection. I had to convince the dealer that selling to me was a better idea than consigning at auction. Another favorite was this Venitian grosso struck under Francisco Dandolo. It had remarkably good centering and strike. The reverse surfaces left a bit to be desired. Then I got a couple nice chunky Russian 5 Kopeks:
Wow! I bet some variety collectors out there are drooling. Thanks for sharing the awesome photos. Glad you had a good time.
