I just got back from the ANA summer seminar I session. It was amazing on so many levels. The number of friendly and knowledgeable people there from the coin world was amazing. It was wonderful to see up close and touch such great numismatic material. It was a special treat to meet some of the great names in the numismatic community. But it was also great to return home. Before I start, I want to thank our own Riverguy (D.) for his advice and friendship during the seminar. We met within a few minutes of my arrival to the campus. I quickly learned about our common Cointalk participation, and shared many stories throughout the week. Stay healthy, my friend! Buona salute, amico. :thumb: I also briefly met Hobo during the farewell dinner my last night there. Oh, well. Better late than never. I took the CSI-Forensics of Ancient coins collecting with David Vagi (NGC Ancients director) and Kerry Wetterstrom (editor of the "Celator" magazine). I hope to write about that course separately in the future. The Bad: The pollen or something in the air was brutal. My sinuses were killing me the entire week. The altitude adjustment (6000') was real but easy to cope with, however. Living in the dorm rooms was also something that took adjustment. I had flashbacks to my college days. I stayed in a single room on a deserted floor at the Loomis dormitories. Although the bathroom was down the hall, no one else ever seemed to use it. The overnight accommodations were very Spartan. The Good: One received a cleaned metallic water bottle at registration. It was nice to have a water supply nearby. Although some people complained, I thought the food was much better than one could expect from a college cafeteria. I wouldn't want to eat there the rest of my life, but I thought it ranged from tolerable to pretty good. No one I met had gone to the weight room, but I found it more than adequate: free weights, weight machines, exercise bikes, etc. Unfortunately, the showers were only for the school athletes. The campus was small, but beautiful. (The graduating class has only 500-600 people.) Squirrels were everywhere. Walking to the classes and the cafeteria was relatively easy since most of the school was on a flat plain. The Excellent: The ANA people were very helpful and friendly. Their hospitality included greeting members at the airport, driving them to the dorms, providing an arrival lunch, arranging buses for the return to the airport, and many other essential functions and services. I was pleased by the friendliness of the instructors and students. (There were a lot of eccentric characters among the attendees. Everyone was nice, but a few were certainly different.) The Ancient collections I viewed were exceptional, especially John N.'s collection. I got to view closely his collection of Ancients. The part we examined was valued well over 3 million dollars. And that was only a fraction of his collection. Wow. I think even the most jaded Ancient collector would have been impressed. The ANA Ancient collection we examined wasn't too shabby, either. Much of it wasn't slabbed or even in plastic. It is always exciting to have one's fingers on the edges of a golden Alexander III (the Great) stater and touch real history. Interesting anecdotes (I don't know if any or all of these are true and accurate): Major dealers have been known to re-submit their coins for slabbing up to 20 times to get the desired grade. Slab graders examine 1200-1500 or more coins daily. (David Vagi of NGC-Ancients, their specialty sevice for Ancient coins, grades alone and grades about 50-1000 coins a day, with "about 600 being a good day.") Someone mentioned that he had submitted 150 coins to NGC. Of these, 20 were body bagged. Surprisingly, he stated that 13 of those coins previously body bagged by NGC were later slabbed by PCGS. It's hard to imagine that major dealers don't have some sway when they regularly send more than 100,000 coins at a time for slabbing and write "only MS70 or 69" on the order form. More than one person reports having sent an original roll for slabbing with at least a dozen of the coins coming back body bagged. Several dealers stated that more and more collections of non-key date and non-high grade silver are headed for the smelter's furnace. The ANA has resolved the horrible in-fighting of a few years back that almost destroyed the organization. The ANA almost went bankrupt and there were several lawsuits filed. Not pretty. It seems as though the "good guys" won, however. Summary: Well worth the time and money. Will I take the class next year? Probably not since David Vagi said he would do his next class in two years. Plus, the timing interferes with my yearly Las Vegas poker trip and will probably interfere with my European vacation next year. But I will probably go to 2012. I recommend this opportunity to anyone with an interest in collecting or in the study of numismatics. g.
I'm glad you enjoyed your experience. It was nice to briefly meet you. Hope to see you (and spend more time with you) at a future Summer Seminar.
Thanks for the kind words - it was great to make a new coin friend. I find it strange that Bart and I both heard much similar scuttlebut(old navy term for rumor and stories) concerning the TPG's and we were in totally different classroom environments. However, this post, like mine, expresses many of the same conclusions. The ANA school expierence was not only educational but very enriching! All who attended - both first timers and returnees - expresses rather emphatically the desire to come back again. I can imagine no higher recommendation.
Bart Thanks for posting this report from the seminar. Something I (and many others here, no doubt) would love to do some day. I have spent a lot of time in C Springs in my younger days and understand about the pollen and altitude. A beautiful place, though.
Another excellent report on the ANA classes - thanks so much for sharing your thoughts and experiences, it's always fun to hear how much everyone enjoys the ANA summer seminar program.
Thanks for letting us little people who couldnt attend get a glimpse of what it would have been like to attend. lol I hope in the next few years I will have the pleasure to be able to go myself. I have been told by numerous people that it is well worth the money and the time to go. Thanks for taking the time to let us know how it went
He sat in several of my classes (Ancients). In fact, he lectured about Ancient incused Sicilian coins from Magna Grecia. He is a very learned but humble man. I was surprised to learn that he is such a giant in American numismatics. g.
He lives locally so he is a regular around ANA (although he doesn't seem to come around as often as he used to). Very nice man. And he REALLY knows a LOT about coins.
