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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Parthicus, post: 8055535, member: 81887&quot;]I attended the Baltimore Whitman Coin Expo today (Friday, November 19, 2021) and was on the bourse continuously from about 10:30 AM to a bit past 2 PM, with no lunch break.&nbsp; This was my first show since the COVID pandemic started, and it felt good to be back.&nbsp; The number of dealers and crowd size seemed similar to what I remember from pre-pandemic.&nbsp; Masks were required (as per Baltimore city ordinance) but there didn&#039;t seem to be very strict enforcement; most people did wear their masks, though some dealers only put them on when a customer came close to their tables.&nbsp; Most tables had an average of 1 customer at any given moment.&nbsp; Most of the dealers that I remember were present.&nbsp; Don Zauche&#039;s widow was there, still selling coins under her late husband&#039;s name.&nbsp; Harlan J. Berk still has his $15 &quot;junk&quot; box, in case [USER=41219]@furryfrog02[/USER] wants to stop by tomorrow.&nbsp; A few dealers I spoke to said they had seen a big increase in online orders during the pandemic, which helped them greatly when the coin shows were closed.&nbsp; It was overall a good show for me, with some very nice purchases plus some cheap but fun coins, although I didn&#039;t find anything I&#039;d consider truly amazing.&nbsp; Here are some quick photos of what I bought (apologies for the poor photos, better ones will come when I get around to full write-ups of the coins).</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1395629[/ATTACH] </p><p>First, I ended up buying these 6 coins from Allen G. Berman.&nbsp; The Sasanian drachm is from the Zarang mint, which I think is scarce (and even if it isn&#039;t, the name starts with a Z, and that&#039;s cool, too).&nbsp; The Parthian drachm of Orodes II, in addition to having a nice portrait, has the very rare T mintmark for Traxiane- definitely a hard-to-find coin.&nbsp; I got the small Kushan bronze because these smaller-module coins (which are either AE drachms, units, or quarter units depending on which reference you like) are harder to find than the larger versions.&nbsp; I also picked up two small Parthian bronzes and an Elymais bronze, just because.</p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1395631[/ATTACH] </p><p>I bought four coins from Tamco Numismatics.&nbsp; The Islamic figural bronze with horseman obverse is from the Seljuqs of Rum, and a type I&#039;ve been seeking for a while.&nbsp; The Hormazd IV drachm is a decent portrait and from the mint of Yazd (which also has a Z in it, therefore worth buying).&nbsp; The two Parthian drachms of Phraates IV are both Nisa mint (scarce) which I picked out of a pile of the far more common Mithradatkart issue.&nbsp; Also, the elongated flan of the rightmost coin shows the ends of the diadem behind the king&#039;s head- these are usually off the edge of the coin, but because of the oval flan shape they are visible here.&nbsp; The Khusro II drachm and Byzantine bronze of Justin II and Sophia are from The Time Machine and are pleasant, middle-of-the-road coins.&nbsp; (Also, I photographed the Byzantine coin&#039;s obverse upside-down on purpose, it definitely wasn&#039;t just a silly mistake on my part.)&nbsp; Finally, the Yazdegard drachm is from Alexander Scorupsky and has a CNG provenance; I bought it for the unusually nice state of preservation.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>[ATTACH=full]1395650[/ATTACH] </p><p>Finally, I spent a bit of time picking out modern coins from the junk box of a world coin dealer whose name I forget.&nbsp; All of these are from the $2 per coin box, except the holed one on the second row which was $5. I already have pretty good ideas on the ID for most of these, but feel free to share your thoughts.</p><p><br /></p><p>Overall, I had a great time today and am very glad that the Baltimore coin show is back.&nbsp; I got some very nice coins, had friendly conversations with many dealers (only one of whom noticed my &quot;Squid Game&quot; t-shirt, unfortunately) and managed to stay within my budget.&nbsp; I look forward to hearing from other people who attended-how well did your experiences match mine?&nbsp; What treasures did you find?[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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