I scooted over for the annual Raleigh Money Expo earlier today. Didn't spend as long as usual, but some quick notes: The show was VERY well-populated with dealers. It's in a fairly large space, and usually there are some empty tables around the back edges, but this time it was practically wall-to-wall full. That was good to see. There were quite a few attendees as well -- definitely more than last year. There were a couple of faces I recognized on the "In Memoriam" table. There were some excellent educational displays. A display on the Gobrecht eagle included an 1836 2-cent billon pattern (I'd never heard of this!), as well as a large-size cent pattern and several half-dollar patterns. I spent a good bit of time at that one. There was also a nice educational-note display, with some detailed explanations of their rise and fall, and a very thorough fractional-note display. I'm not normally a note person, but these displays caught and held my interest. I didn't check the going rates for junk silver or gold, but the "we're buying" signs seemed a bit larger and more numerous than previous years. ANACS was there as usual, along with the Barber Collector's Society, but I didn't stop to interact with either. Anybody else go?
Yeah, I would be pretty hard-pressed to say it was worth driving down from NY. It's a good show, but there are MUCH bigger ones MUCH closer to you.