FUN Show report - Toners, Proofs, Prooflikes, and Introducing....

I got off work Friday afternoon as early as possible, and had a very pleasant drive down to Orlando (about 6 hours). The afternoon was sunny, and then the night was clear. After spending the night in the cheapest hotel I could find, I met Chris (cpm9ball on the NGC Chat boards) at the convention center, where he generously gave me a few auction catalogues that had decent sections of gold. This was in response to an earlier thread of mine asking about how to collect gold dollars - which I still might eventually. After talking to Chris for an hour or so, the doors opened to the show, and we parted ways for the morning.

This was the first FUN show where I really didn't have a plan. I had a lot of cash in my pocket, and not really any idea what I wanted - I was in search of inspiration. So, I fell back on my old standby of English Shillings, and headed to the foreign section. Along the way, I passed table after table of nice coins. I finally stopped at a dealers table which was rich in English coins, from Ancient Roman, to Celtic, to Hammered, up through about 1800. We talked for a few minutes about shillings, and I was able to look at some incredibly nice ones, including the best struck James I shilling you could imagine (the dealer said in his twenty years, he's handled about 150 James I shillings, with only one better struck than that). Alas, it was out of my price range. So I asked if he had anything more affordable, upon which he pulled out this gorgeous William III shilling, and I bought it without hesitation. The surfaces are flawless, and the die clash behind his head was too intriguing to pass up.




With that out of my way, I could delay my quest for a new series no longer. I began searching for the three coins that I had narrowed it down to - 20 centers, gold dollars, and Walkers. Table after table I search, and only a couple 20 centers could I find. Gold dollars were equally scarce (although Heritage had a fantastic! set of gold dollars on display, along with an equally amazing (and finest assembled) set of Mercury Dimes. Just imagine, a 1916 in 66FB!) So, with the choice seemingly made for me, I began to look at Walkers. And look, and look, and look. I wanted to study them and get a feel for them before I bought any. I spent the rest of the morning just looking at Walkers, and refrained from buying any yet. It was at this point when I found an affordable, beautiful, blast white, strongly cameo'd proof Franklin at a price I found attractive, so I bought it. Its graded NGC PR-67 UCAM.




It was approaching noon, so I headed upstairs for the NGC luncheon, where I met up again with Chris, and met Shane (kryptonitecomics on NGC) and a few others. The food was excellent (very good potato salad!), and we passed a great hour or so showing coins back and forth. Chris was extremely generous, and gave everyone at our table a 1980 Lincoln cent he had found, all showing a strongly clashed LIBERTY in the memorial. Shane had a whole bunch of goodies stuffed in his camera bag, and just when I thought I had seen them all, he pulled out another. I couldn't resist when he showed me this gorgeous PCGS MS-64 EOR, and talked him in to selling it to me. The lusterous, semi-prooflike surfaces glowed, and the delicious sea greens, aqua blues, and oranges just leapt off the coin. My pictures don't quite bring out the full extent of the blues in the coin.




After lunch, the first thing I did was bought this dime. I had seen it in the morning, and I just couldn't get it out of my head. I kept coming back to it, and must have passed the dealer's table 3 or 4 times, just so I could look at it. All through lunch I kept thinking about it - and that's when you know its a coin you have to have. Before I talk about the coin, take a look at it. Scroll down slowly - look at the obverse. Guess the grade. Then look at the reverse. Guess again!




This coin is a 1941S graded NGC MS-65 FB PL! Absolutely beautiful, the mirrored surfaces drew me in. I got lost in Liberty's gaze, and the amazingly strong strike. Prooflikes, as we have discussed before, are incredibly rare, but exist, on 40's era S mint coins. As you all know (and as I showed the guys at lunch) I have a prooflike Franklin - and when I saw this gorgeous dime, I figured I might as well add it to the bunch. Who knows, maybe a prooflike set is in the works?

After this excitement, I spent quite a while talking to a dealer who specializes in Walkers - his entire table was raw, early date, circulated Walkers. If I am ever going to afford a Walker set, I knew that the early dates would have to be circulated, so I spent about 45 minutes talking to him. He had complete early date sets (1916 through 1921) in three different grades - F, VF, and EF, as well as numerous duplicates. Each of his sets were evenly matched, attractive, and very strongly priced. He took the time to walk me through each set, however, describing how to grade them, various pro's and con's of collecting in each grade, which dates were harder to find, which dates were more expensive (not necessarily the same), and other aspects of early Walkers. The coins were beautiful (although some of them were cleaned and problem coins, but most were attractive). I had been somewhat concerned about having to collect lower grade Walkers for the earlier dates. I was concerned that VF Walkers weren't quite as attractive as the higher graded coins I would buy for later dates, but spending some time handling these coins showed me that if I go for strong VF+ coins, they could still be very attractive, detailed, and relatively affordable.

I still wasn't ready to buy any Walkers, though, so I moved on. One of the highlights of the show was a dealer who had not one, not two, but three EF-45 1795 Flowing Hair Half Dollars, a coin incredibly high on my dreamlist (and he only wanted $11k for the best one of the lot, which I considered incredibly reasonable). After carefully studying these three for a while, I moved on to look at the incredible display at the PCGS table - the Dale Friend collection of Early Halves. I could go on and on about these beautiful coins - all very high grade, wonderfully attractive coins. So many beautiful coins!!!! My next stop was at Rick Tomaska's table, where I finally got to meet one of my numismatic heroes. He graciously autographed my copy of his book, and we talked Franklin's for a while. I was quite proud to tell him of my set, and when I told him the entire set was NGC FBL's, he replied with an impressed look, saying, "Wow, that's tough. Impressive." That made my day.

After looking at a few more Walkers, trying to understand them, what to look for, what I wanted, etc., I finally made my first purchase. A couple tables down, I found a couple more that pleased me, so without further to-do, I present to you.... The Poe Collection of Walking Liberty Halves. Go ahead, guess the grades on these three, and I'll post the grades later. The first is in an NGC fatty, the last is in an OGH.








Overall, the show was an incredible success for me. I had a great time, bought some amazing coins, and finally decided where I'm going next. Thanks for reading my report!

Jason

 

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Very nice batch of coins! All of them. And the one I like the best is that Shilling - something about the color and the strike. Seems like you had a good day!

 

Nice report and nice coins. I would guess your halves are 65, 64, 64 (maybe 65).

Got most everything from your report, but how were the prices and volume?

 

Great report, and nice coins! I like that '80-S Morgan, the large S is always cool too. :thumb:

 

Overall, an exciting and wonderful show. Very successful for us. My only regret is not connecting with more CTers ! See you in Long Beach !

 

nice pickups

 

Very nice coins. Glad you had a good show.

 

Nice Coins. I really like the Mercury Dime.
I have never seen a PL mercury dime before, thanks for sharing that!



LouieLot

 

Very nice! I'll go 65's on all!

 

Great report and pics. I like the emotion you you put in this, which only a collector would understand. When I go to the coin shop, it is an event. You look at the coins, think about your budget and then have to negotiate with the coin shop. Every time it is a little different. I will not submit a report though on my visits.

 

As a novice collector, I will say some of what I brought away from this report.

One the passion for coins makes me realize how UNappreciative I am of the beauty and art of coins in comparison to the OP, I mean I like them, I spend time on them, I think about them at sundry times during the day, but I am a coin midget next to some of the collectors we have here on cointalk.

Two, I like how despite the enthusiasm for the coins seen, the Op was able to take time, to compare, to mull over possibilities, this is a trait I have to learn to emulate, I probably would not have made it once around the bourse before I was tapped out.

Three, the cameraderie of collectors, the meetings, the mentoring, the advice, the knowledge passed, this is another aspect of coin collecting that increases the pleasure, instead of looking at the whole business as some sort of adversarial game, where sellers are pitted against buyers, there is a genuine sharing of the fun of numismatics.

Thanks for the report, our local area has another show in a few weeks, I will see if I am able to put some of these things into practice myself.

 

My guess is MS 66 on the first two, 65 on the last one.

 

Very well said. This is my future mantra. Thank goodness for Coin Talk.

 

Nice pick ups!! Congrats!!

 

I'd guess 65 for the first one. Well struck but that mark in the field behind Liberty probably holds it down to 65.
The second one is also well struck. Not quite as good as the first but with the lack of really distracting marks I can see it making 66.
The third one has at best an average strike (head and hand a bit weak, but full gown lines). And with the rub in the field behind Liberty I see it as a 64.

 

A great report, Physics-fan! I'm sorry I didn't reach out to meet you and others (as .900 fine stated) at the show. I only met Collect89 (very fine chap who bought some very interesting and diverse bunch of coins at the show - hopefully he'll post about them soon) and, of course, wonderful Charmy of The Penny Lady fame. I'll plan on posting my show report soon.

I understand your conflict in building a set of Walkers with two different tiers of grades (lower grades for the early dates, mint state for the latter dates). That would make me hesitate too, but I hope it doesn't stop you from your goal.

 

Except for the less expensive sets like Roosevelts or Jeffersons, I have no problem with mixed grades.
And many other people don't either which is why there are such things as "short sets".
At the moment it looks like the next set I'll be trying to complete will be IHCs.
Back a year or so I decided to complete a short set (my definition since there doesn't appear to be a standard one).
My definition turned out to be 1895-1909 in MS. It's still a work in progress but the desire to now work on a complete set has grabbed me.
Most of the IHCs before 1895 will be circulated but I have tentatively decided on XF or better.
This decision was made easier because I already have the 1877 in XF-45.

 

Good guesses on the grades everyone. They are all graded MS-65, but the first two I believe have a good shot at 66 (the 1941 especially - strong strike, bold luster, great eye appeal!) The 46S looks better in hand, its definitely a 65, but the luster is of a frostier variety.

 

Ha, I perfected it! I do agree that the 1st two might have gone MS66, but I was being conservative.

 

some really nice coins

pd13