Chicago International Coin Fair

Anyone here going?

It's next week, April 14-17. It is a show dedicated to World/Ancient coins.

I will try. I will for sure be at the Cental States Numismatic Society coin show two weeks later just up the road in Schaumburg, Il.

 

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I'm going. I live like 10 miles from there so I've gone the past three or four years. Every year I'm a little less impressed though. Last year I think there was only one seller who had the sort of thing I'm interested in, and it's not like I have expensive taste (which is actually the problem).

 

Never been to the windy city, always drive around it. But big shows like that usually have a very poor showing of base-metal modern world coins. Most dealers offer "world coins" which are usually very rare, or centuries old, and way beyond my reach. Actually smaller shows and local coin shops are better bets. Still I would love to go tho that show! Enjoy.

 

There are usually only a few dealers who have the cheaper stuff, and a few of those are the type who have coins that you usually find in the 25 cent bin priced at $5 a piece. That's why I get discouraged going, especially if one person camps out in front of one of the few cheap bins for hours. The show actually isn't in Chicago though; it's in Rosemont, which is miles away from the city itself. It's close to O'Hare airport.

 

I went several years ago. It was my first time going and I was a little disappointed with the size of the show. I guess when I heard "International" I expected more dealers. Also, during that time period, gold was at a high price and so most dealers were showcasing mostly gold coins. Definitely out of my price range and unfortunately I did not find any coins that I was looking for. Hopefully things are different with gold prices down but if it's still at the same hotel don't expect a ton of dealers.

 

How about the Central States show on April 28-30?

 

I plan to go to this. Never been before though.
In a broad sense, what should I expect?

 

Well, I asked that very same question to the organizer, Patricia Foley. She emailed me back and this is what she said about it...

"The bourse is primarily US Coins. Jonathan Kern (booths 1206-1207-1208), Pegasi (booth 1608) and Kent Froseth (booth 1107) are dealers specializing in ancient and world coins. Our event has roughly 300 booths. Please visit our website, centralstates.info, where you will find any information you might need, including a list of all booths holders and the event schedule."

Central States show in Schaumburg is the one that I'm attending. I don't think I can make it to the Chicago International. Sounds like Central States might be better, just based on people's comments here, and the number of tables. I do collect some US, and there are more dealers who have World Coins than just the ones that she mentioned, just from looking at the list of dealers.

 

Not sure. I went only once and it was on the last day, so a lot of the dealers had already packed up or were in the process of doing so. There was only one seller that day with world coins, but it being the last day it's hard to judge. The good thing about the one in Rosemont is it's all world coins. But at that one I think I did all my buying from Harlan Berk from Chicago.

 

I will be at CICF, very much looking forward to it!

 

I always watch the Heritage CICF auctions with interest. There is often a wide selection of interesting stuff. I don't usually buy much, but its fun to look.

 

I spoke to an ancient dealer there today who is pleasantly surprised due to increased traffic. My guess is that ANA being outside of Chicago drove locals to show.

 

I went today. I had a better experience than last year. I think the difference was that this time I was able to get in at some of the dealers who had a lot to look through. They tended to fill up and people couldn't even get to their tables. Some were really busy and others had no one at them. There were some people who I'd go by, look at a few prices, laugh to myself and then move along, and others who had some reasonable deals. If you're going don't make the same mistake I did - it's not at the Crowne Plaza hotel this year. It's at the Stephens Convention Center across the street.

 

Thanks for the report.

Pull the trigger on anything? Share it here!

 

I bought a lot of coins but my purchases are all hole fillers instead of the big purchases that some people make. Mine were all in the $1-$10 range. Lots of South Africa, Hong Kong, Mexico.

 

I have never been to CICF, primarily to the ANA and once, Long Beach. I have found little to buy at any of them.

What did you see from South Africa? Was it ZAR, Union or RSA and was it graded or not? High grades?

I have always wanted to go to this show, as my primary series now is Spanish colonial pillar minors, especially those from Bolivia and Peru.

 

I was buying fairly cheap stuff to fill out my collection, mostly 1930s-50s, but I did get an 1895. There are some high-quality coins there and I'm sure you could have found some graded and choice pieces. It just wasn't what I was there looking for.

 

Most of my South Africa collection is from the Union series, not ZAR and I have never bought much RSA. The Union series (1923-1960) is disproportionately a lot scarcer, as few coins were saved and there aren't that many even in average circulated grades which look comparable to US coins from the same time period.

These coins have really taken a financial hit since the end of 2012. If you are looking to add to your collection, now is a good time to do it. There are a lot of "key" dates in practically every denomination but most are inexpensive by US standards or nominally priced, except in better grades.

 

I've also found that many seem unusually cheap. I bought a lot of pretty nice three and sixpences for just a few dollars each.

 

Since I don't buy from local dealers and have not attended a coin show in several years, I don't buy ungraded coins from this series now though I would if I could inspect them directly. My presumption from the price decline of the last four years is that many of the coins you are looking for probably sell for closer to Krause now than they did.

If these are KGVI and QEII as I presume, finding examples with a good strike and relatively mark free surfaces can be difficult. KGVI in my experience tend to have granular surfaces up to lower MS grades (MS-62) and QEII poor strikes.