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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;physics-fan3.14, post: 783846, member: 19165&quot;]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. </p><p><br /></p><p>This was the first FUN show where I really didn&#039;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&#039;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. </p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk68/physicsfan/Shillings/IMG_6160.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk68/physicsfan/Shillings/IMG_6164.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;d proof Franklin at a price I found attractive, so I bought it. Its graded NGC PR-67 UCAM. </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;<img src="http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/usercontent/images/coins_images/col-socphotos/1791151-006O.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p>&nbsp;<img src="http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/usercontent/images/coins_images/col-socphotos/1791151-006R.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;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&#039;t quite bring out the full extent of the blues in the coin. </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;<img src="http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/usercontent/images/coins_images/col-socphotos/11425942O.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p>&nbsp;<img src="http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/usercontent/images/coins_images/col-socphotos/11425942R.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>After lunch, the first thing I did was bought this dime. I had seen it in the morning, and I just couldn&#039;t get it out of my head. I kept coming back to it, and must have passed the dealer&#039;s table 3 or 4 times, just so I could look at it. All through lunch I kept thinking about it - and that&#039;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! </p><p><br /></p><p>&nbsp;<img src="http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/usercontent/images/coins_images/col-socphotos/1786270-004O.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p>&nbsp;<img src="http://coins.www.collectors-society.com/usercontent/images/coins_images/col-socphotos/1786270-004R.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /> </p><p><br /></p><p>This coin is a 1941S graded NGC MS-65 FB PL! Absolutely beautiful, the mirrored surfaces drew me in. I got lost in Liberty&#039;s gaze, and the amazingly strong strike. Prooflikes, as we have discussed before, are incredibly rare, but exist, on 40&#039;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? </p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;s and con&#039;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&#039;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. </p><p><br /></p><p>I still wasn&#039;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&#039;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&#039;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&#039;s, he replied with an impressed look, saying, &quot;Wow, that&#039;s tough. Impressive.&quot; That made my day. </p><p><br /></p><p>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&#039;ll post the grades later. The first is in an NGC fatty, the last is in an OGH. </p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk68/physicsfan/Walkers/IMG_6181.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk68/physicsfan/Walkers/IMG_6183.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk68/physicsfan/Walkers/IMG_6188.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk68/physicsfan/Walkers/IMG_6192.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk68/physicsfan/Walkers/IMG_6195.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><img src="http://i277.photobucket.com/albums/kk68/physicsfan/Walkers/IMG_6199.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p>Overall, the show was an incredible success for me. I had a great time, bought some amazing coins, and finally decided where I&#039;m going next. Thanks for reading my report! </p><p><br /></p><p>Jason[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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