Long Beach Show World Coin Shopping Report

Discussion in 'World Coins' started by satootoko, Feb 16, 2007.

  1. satootoko

    satootoko Retired

    I picked up several coppers, and a few silver minors, today, and met another forum member; but overall it was a very disappointing show for someone who doesn't collect US coins. :(

    The brightest spot was chatting with Brad (acanthite). :)

    I never saw anyone matching the description of himself that Zaneman posted - especially the part about "young". In fact, on the whole youth was conspicuous by its absence. I only saw one teenager, and far more bald heads and grey hair than under-30s. :( :( The crowd was also very predominantly male, although there were lots of women behind the tables.

    There were only two dealers concentrating on world coins (both of whom I have dealt with successfully for several years). Pricing of Japanese coins has definitely gone up. In the past I have become accustomed to paying a discount of 10-40% from Krause, but both dealers had most of their stock priced at a premium of at least 10%. One had fixed prices and his employees were not allowed to go below them. The other didn't give me as good deals as he had in the past.

    Unlike past shows very few of the dealers in US coins had any substantial number of world coins in boxes or notebooks. However, it was one of those who brightened my day by selling me a couple of coins for less than I had offered!

    I chose one $7.95 coin and one $8.95 coin from her selection of about a dozen Japanese coins; and asked her if we could do the deal for $15. She got out her calculator, looked at the pricing codes on the box, and said "No. How about $14?" :D

    I didn't see a single Japanese gold coin, or for that matter anything on my needs list valued at $100 or more. Between the silver sale, and the less than anticipated "finds", I came home with quite a bit more cash than I expected to.

    The final tally was the same number of coins from Japan and World War II Japanese-occupied Manchukuo, plus one from another Japanese puppet state.

    I had gathered up all the silver quarters and halves that I had hoarded from circulation and put away many years ago, and decided to sell them. The first three dealers I asked about their junk silver prices were at 8-1/4 and 8-1/2 times face, so when I found one who offered 9x, it was sold.

    Another guy had a sign on his table: "Specializing in President Dollars", and he actually had a half-dozen or so on display, but not for sale. He did have several hundred slabbed Sacs, and quite a few SBAs. Asking price for MS66 Sacs was in the hundreds. :eek:

    I chatted with him for a while and his description of a conversation with the head teller at his bank was very interesting. She told him that if he would take $5,000 worth of Sacs off her hands, to free up storage space in her vault, she would get him "some" of the Deadprez dollars. She turned him down on an offer to buy her stock of Sacs if she would replace it with Deadprezes, saying her vault space was to valuable to waste on coins nobody wanted.

    There were definitely not as many tables as previous shows I have attended, and the stamp section (it's billed as a stamp and coin show) was quite a bit larger than in the past.
     
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  3. silvereagle82

    silvereagle82 World Gold Collector

    Other than Japan, was there much world gold?

    Thanks for the report !!!
     
  4. Aidan Work

    Aidan Work New Member

    I wonder how many dealers came from outside America.It would be interesting if at least 1 dealer from New Zealand was there.

    Aidan.
     
  5. acanthite

    acanthite ALIIS DIVES

    Thanks for the report, Roy, I also very much enjoyed our chat :high5: . There were certainly quite a lot of US coins, I was mostly interested in semi-key Barber dimes but saw relatively few. I did pick up a 1913-S, which I've been searching for in VF for a while now. Loads of Morgans at many tables, though personally I don't collect them. There was a table with a good selection of civil war tokens, I bought a 208/410a which has the ominous reverse legend 'If anybody attempts to tear it down [meaning the flag], shoot him on the spot'. I saw only one table with a good selection of ancients. It was getting late in the afternoon and was able to bargain a fair bit. I haven't been to many shows so don't have a firm base for comparison as to whether this one was really good or not.
     
  6. satootoko

    satootoko Retired

    I saw quite a bit of gold, but I'm really not sure how much was US and how much was world.
     
  7. bgarg

    bgarg Senior Member

    I was planning to visit the show on Friday, but had to make a last minute change in the plan. Missed an opportunity to meet you guys there and am hoping to meet some of you during next show.

    I was there on Thursday and Saturday. I did an exhibit on "Kutch One Kori Coins" in which I displayed a complete collection of one Kori coins issued by different rulers in that state.

    My search for any nice Indian coins was a waste of time and didn't find a single coin to add in my collection. Every dealer was telling me that it's tough to keep nice Indian coins in stock

    However I was able to find some nice coins for my world coin collection. Some of the finds were
    - USA, 1917 Type I, Standing Liberty Quarter
    - Mexico, 8 Reals of Charles IIII
    - Mexico, 4 Reals of Charles III
    - Mexico, few 10 and 20 Centavos
    - Canada, 1935 Silver dollar
    - Canada, (few) Half dollars of George VI
    - Canada, few smaller denominations for upgrade
    - Australia, few shillings and florins
    - Some early Canadian tokens

    Regards
    Ballabh Garg
     
  8. bgarg

    bgarg Senior Member

    I saw couple of British dealers in the show and I was able to get few nice British coins from them. Apart from them, the only dealers from outside US where from Mexico. Usually I get modern Mexican coins from them, but this time they didn't had any.

    Regards
    Ballabh Garg
     
  9. satootoko

    satootoko Retired

    Before his death a few years ago, Mike Cummings (author of Modern Japanese Coinage), who had shops in Florida and Tokyo, used to attend in a joint booth with another American dealer from Tokyo, and an EBay seller of high quality Japanese coins from Oceanside, CA; but neither of Mike's associates was there this year. :(
     
  10. bgarg

    bgarg Senior Member

    Here is the 1917 Type I Quarter I got for my US Type set. The coin is lustrous but the scanned image doesn't show it at all. (I guess I need to try with my digital camera to capture the luster on any coin)

    1917_Obv.JPG 1917_Rev.JPG

    Regards,
    Ballabh Garg
     
  11. bgarg

    bgarg Senior Member

    Here is the 8 Reales coin ->

    921145.jpg

    And 4 Reales coin ->

    921146.jpg

    Regards,
    Ballabh Garg
     
  12. Aidan Work

    Aidan Work New Member

    Ballabh,the Type I Standing Liberty Quarter is actually quite a rare coin.I don't know what the Krause prices are like for this coin.

    Roy,this thread should be transferred into the 'Coin Chat' section.

    Aidan.
     
  13. bgarg

    bgarg Senior Member

    And some Canadian Coins...

    1935 Dollar ->
    921147.jpg

    1956 Dollar ->
    921148.jpg

    1949 Half Dollar ->
    921149.jpg

    Regards,
    Ballabh Garg
     
  14. bgarg

    bgarg Senior Member

    And finally some British coins

    1745 Half Crown ->
    921150.jpg

    1849 Florin ->
    921151.jpg

    1758 Shilling ->
    921152.jpg

    Regards,
    Ballabh Garg
     
  15. Aidan Work

    Aidan Work New Member

    Ballabh,those are very nice coins.In Canada,they don't call 50c. coins as Half Dollars.

    I like the condition of that 1849 'Godless' Florin.It is a very hard coin to find in any grade,as the mintage figure is under 500,000 pieces.I have got one.If the 'W.W.' (the initials of William Wyon) isn't there behind the Queen's head,then it is an extremely scarce variety that is worth looking out for.

    The 'LIMA' coins of 1745 & 1746 are also not an easy coinage series to find.I have a 1746 LIMA 6d. as my lone example from this coinage.

    The 1758 6d. & 1/- coins actually turn up quite often.

    Aidan.
     
  16. bgarg

    bgarg Senior Member

    Thanks Aidan.

    I am happy to add this coin in my British Type set. I will check the coin for this variety tonight and will post the findings.

    Regards
    Ballabh Garg
     
  17. bgarg

    bgarg Senior Member

    I would like to see some comments from learned members in this group on these two Mexican reales coins I have recently added in my collection. Much appreciated.

    Regards
    Ballabh Garg
     
  18. GDJMSP

    GDJMSP Numismatist Moderator

    Nice additions :thumb: I'd say the 8 reales would grade high F/low VF, was probably struck with a rusty die ( thus the few bumps on the surface ), and would value about $65. The 4 reales would grade F, is a much harder coin to find and value is about $125. It was also the last year for that design.
     
  19. bgarg

    bgarg Senior Member

    Thanks Doug, for your comments. The dealer marked both of them as VF and I was debating for them at fine. I got both of them for the price closer to what you have mentioned. Thanks again.

    Regards
    Ballabh Garg
     
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