Got back from FUN this morning. The nice thing about a 6:00 am flight from Orlando to Chicago is that I still have a full day ahead of me. The not so nice thing is that I barely slept last night. Had a great time at the show. Arrived Thursday a little after noon and got to meet Steve Feiertag, who was exhibiting a neat "CAC plus Eagle Eye" Indian cent set, as he was having me shoot a bunch of coins from his type set. As others have said, the show was quite busy. He and I went to the PCGS Cocktail Party. Felt more like an airport lounge than anything else, but it was a nice 30 minute break from the show with nice snacks and an adult beverage and a commemorative slab. I could have made dinner of it were I not going out with some friends that night. Friday was also busy for me. Shout-out to Heritage for accommodating my desire to borrow the 1921-S Zerbe strike Morgan they're selling (along with a Heritage-issued body guard for the coin) so that I could take some pictures of the coin and also the diagnostics for the die pair so that I could properly document it and add it to the VAM catalog. One of my VAM friends travels with a stereoscope with camera on it, so I got some good pictures. This will be listed as VAM 35 and is awaiting being found as a normal business strike. It doesn't make any sense for the SF mint to strike 24 coins and then scrap the dies, so I'm thinking there has to be some normal strikes from this die pair. I had about an hour to throw together a presentation about this coin for VAM Thing XX. Nice dinner with a group of about 25 people at Delmonico's that night. Biggest group we've had by far, including some younger collectors. Saturday is typically more relaxing, but I was busier than expected. I had a chance to chat with John Dannreuther for a while, and he had a set of really nice half cent electrotypes show up at his table while I was there (1831, 36, 40-49, 52). He talked me into pulling the trigger on an MA-Shops coin I had bookmarked back when the exchange rate was better and the coin would have cost me $50 less. I consider that my 3rd FUN purchase, even though the coin won't arrive for a while. I'll probably post it on the Dark Side forum, although it's really a Gray Side coin. I finally got to meet LordMarcovan, who had me shoot the 1927-A 5 Reichsmark piece he showed earlier. I also ran into ldhair a few times during the show. The first two purchases? The first was another matte proof Lincoln from Angel Dee's. This time a 1912 in PR66BN. He had a PR65BN I briefly considered, but this coin was far nicer and is a better match for my other coins: The second was a nice 1826 50c (O-112a) in AU55 from Northern Nevada Coin I did the NGC grading contest again. Just missed top 10 this time, but I'm going to say it's because NGC didn't grade at least one of the coins correctly.
'Twas a pleasure. You looked nothing like I imagined, and in fact you bear a really eerie resemblance to my old friend Tim R. from NC. I mean, like identical twin vibes! You might be an inch or two taller, is all. Even your geeky-cool Star Wars shirt seems like something he might wear. Here, so that everyone can see your smiling face... Below are the LordM purchase pix of the coin mentioned, not the pending @messydesk photos, which I'm looking forward to. (Dang NGC white prongs... grrrr...)
I love both coins but the matte proof is really nice. Nice color with no spots. Pretty coin. I ran into a few 1916 proofs but non were as clean as the 12 you found and the prices were crazy. Great seeing you at the show.
I love the natural toning on both sides of the Lincoln. Both coins are great, you did very well. Thanks for sharing @messydesk
