My (somewhat delayed) 2015 FUN Show Report

Discussion in 'Coin Chat' started by brg5658, Jan 15, 2015.

  1. brg5658

    brg5658 Well-Known Member

    This was my 2nd year to attend the FUN show in Orlando, FL. I left the tundra of Minnesota on Wednesday afternoon, January 7th to head south. The high the day I left was a balmy negative 8 degrees in my hometown (yes, that's -8). I arrived in Orlando on Wednesday evening to pleasant temperatures around 60 (and the humor of lots of Florida locals sporting jackets and even winter-type coats :D). Wednesday evening I had dinner at a restaurant near my hotel, and looked over my FUN map notes to prepare for Thursday morning. I had gone through the entire listing of dealers the weekend before and had created a color coded map of tables I wanted to hit first, before my full walk-through on Thursday.

    Thursday I got to the show around 10:30am -- I got there right at 10am last year, and had to suffer through a silly Lincoln impersonator and some other opening "stuff" that I purposefully planned to skip this year. First thing, I headed to the NGC table to drop off 5 various world tokens for grading, using my membership coupon for the year. That only took a couple minutes as I had printed the electronic forms at home and had everything prepared -- the personnel at the NGC table were grateful for this preparation as the table was teaming with others who were filling out the carbon copy paper forms.

    My first stop was the table of Gary Groll and Ron Sirna. In particular, I was looking for a handful of Conder tokens still on my list. After some viewing, I found a nicely struck example of the Hampshire-Portsea DH-79 token graded MS64BN by NGC. The attribution on the holder was wrong (listed as 79a) but, as a type collector, I am after the design, not the edge lettering. I purchased this token outright from Ron, as I was confident there were no other quality Conders around the floor (and, for the most part I was correct -- there were a few, but nothing I was interested in at 3-4 other tables -- nothing of the quality and selection that Groll and Sirna had).

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    Next, I visited the tables of 4-5 dealers highlighted on my map to specifically browse their selections of exonumia (tokens, medals, and other ephemera). I made notes of a few pieces and asking prices, and particularly enjoyed chatting with John Kraljevich a bit and viewing a few of the pieces in his stock. I couldn't get to Steve Hayden's table, as a few collectors had all kinds of stuff spread out on his glass cases covering all of the pieces I wanted to see therein. I went to Ernie Latter's table, and unfortunately I didn't find anything of interest in his selection this year (last year I found two very nice pieces from him). I had a nice chat with Jeff Shevlin, and took note of some very nice So-Called Dollars he had there.

    Around noon on Thursday, I ate some lunch (from among the quite horrible choices in the convention center) while leaning against a wall (there was no seating in the hall to be found). After that, I started my "up-and-down every row" stroll through the show. I gave a glance to most every case, and it's actually quite easy to find dealers who have material I'm interested in. I passed over dozens of tables of widgets (mid-grade Morgans, ho-hum coins that you scratch your head as to why they were ever even slabbed, and more world and US bullion than you could shake a stick at). I stopped and took notes at only 5 tables from among the very long double-sided 16 rows of dealers. I did stop at John Kraljevich's table again, and noticed that the price sticker of one of the pieces I was interested in was removed -- I just took note of this (it becomes relevant later).

    Again, I couldn't get to Steve Hayden's table to view anything, as he still had a mob of old guys sitting around with their junk on top of the cases....argh.... :banghead:

    It was nearly 5pm when I finally finished my 4.5 hour winding tour of the bourse. I took just a couple minutes to review my notes, and made my way back to John Kraljevich's table. I was ready to make a deal on two nice pieces he had in his case. I had taken notes early in the morning on the prices of the two tokens I was interested in, and I noticed that the "witch token" price tag had been removed. As I suspected, I asked John and he said that he likely had it priced too low. The gentleman he is though, he said that if I wanted it before the end of the day, that he would honor the price I had seen earlier in the day. He was by no means obligated to do so, but I already knew I wanted the token.

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    In addition to the witch token, I purchased a very high end 1854 (plain 4) Province of Canada St. George Bank of Upper Canada token. Both pieces are nice additions to my collection, and John is one of the nicest people around to work with, can't say enough nice things about him.

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    Around 5:30pm I called it a day for Thursday, and went back to my hotel to research some of the pieces I had taken notes on. I grabbed dinner at a delicious pizza place within walking distance of my hotel (Mellow Mushroom), and called it a night by around 10pm.

    Friday morning I woke up lateish, drove around South Orlando a bit and hit a mall (it was in the 50s, a bit rainy, and somewhat windy on Friday). I headed back toward the show around 1pm. I knew the dealers from the day before that I wanted to visit again, and I went back to 3 tables to view a few tokens. In the end, I kept coming back to one table and a token that I simply couldn't stop looking at. It was a Robert Lovett, Jr. proof piece from the FCC Boyd and John J. Ford, Jr collections -- a mule of two obverse dies of two fellows who pretty much despised one another (Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson). The oddity of the token screamed "buy me", along with the fact that it was well documented and had a mintage of a scant 5 proofs (even though NGC had designated is as MS). I had to stretch my budget for the token, but I'm very glad I purchased it. It was definitely one of those "once in a collecting lifetime" moments.

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    After my last purchase, my budget was exhausted, and I made a few quick stops at tables just to browse some amazing coins and tokens. I stopped by Tom Bush's (@Tom B ) table and chatted for a bit, and he showed me an amazing Barber half dollar that he had purchased at the show. By 3pm, I was on my way out of the show, and had wrapped up yet another successful FUN show.

    On Friday night, I went to dinner with fellow forum board members HardTimes (NGC boards), BillJones (NGC boards), @physics-fan3.14 , and @ldhair . All gentlemen and scholars, we had a great dinner and great conversation about coins, the forums, and the show. As the show is moving to Tampa next year, I've not yet decided if I will attend in 2016. I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.

    Cheers, and thanks for reading,

    -Brandon
     
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  3. krispy

    krispy krispy

    Thanks for the review. Beautiful new pieces! Love the witch token!
     
  4. Eng

    Eng Senior Eng

    Sweet coins b5658, nice write up too!!!
     
  5. green18

    green18 Unknown member Sweet on Commemorative Coins Supporter

    Sweet review Brandon. Sorry I missed you there.
     
  6. krispy

    krispy krispy

    So where's your report, Ken... I've been looking for one and if you bought anything fun at FUN. :)
     
  7. spirityoda

    spirityoda Coin Junky

    nice report and cool tokens. :cat:
     
  8. geekpryde

    geekpryde Husband and Father Moderator

    Love it! Amazing coins/tokens and amazing photographs. I am sure you are sick of hearing that from a CAC-fanboy like me. :p
     
    brg5658 likes this.
  9. JPeace$

    JPeace$ Coinaholic

    Congrats on your additions.
     
  10. Chiefbullsit

    Chiefbullsit CRAZY HORSE

    Nice report and the tokens are awesome.

    I really like the 1796 Hampshire and the 1860 Witches are too cool. You have a tremendous token set.
     
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