Hi fellow CT'ers, My familyt and I are spending our holidays here in Massachusetts, and noticed that there is a coin show in Westford on Sunday July 26th. I thought it would be great to visit a few shows while we are here, and Westford is not too far from us. Does anybody know the Westford Show show? is it worth going there? If I go it would be great to meet some CT'ers there. Eduard
Seems I remember you visiting the Bay State last year Eduard. Massachusetts is a great place to visit. I've always had a wonderful time whenever I've visited there. The Big E has always been my favorite. Wish I could attend and met up with you old friend.....
Than you Green. That is right, I actually have some family living here in Massachusetts. It is very similar weather-wise to central Germany. We love visiting on an annual basis. It seems Westford, where the coin show is being held is not to far from where we are at, so we'll go an see. I hope I do no see too many coins I want, otherwise I'll get into trouble..... Regards, Eduard
Westford, MA Coin Show Report Well, we did find our way to the Westford MA Coin show on Sunday, and we are glad we did! The show is held on a regular basis at the Regency Inn in Westford, located just off I-495, somewhat northwest of Boston. The hotel venue itself was very appealing, they even had a lady at the piano in the lobby. Quite nice. My worst fears about finding a coin I could not resist turned out to be true, much to my wife’s chagrin, but more on that later. This is a fairly large show, considering that it is held on a regular basis. I think it is larger than the other coin shows that I have visited in MA, specifically those at Dedham and Auburn, with something like 50 dealers. Just as we came in, the first dealer on the left had an impressive array of coins, many encapsulated, which make my collectors heart beat faster: early dollars and half dollars, both flowing hair and draped, early dimes and half dimes, also a smattering of colonials, and of course many more modern issues. As it turned out, he had by far the best offering. It was all VERY nice, but pricey……certainly much more than I was equipped for or ready to spend at the show. In general terms most dealers had very nice offering of coins minted post 1840’s: seated issues, gold, barbers and more modern coins such as commemoratives, including of course vast amounts of morgans. I was impressed that so many dealers seemed to have at least some capped bust halves in all price ranges. This was great since I have an 1807 large or small starts in Fine or very fine on my wish list. Unfortunately, in spite of all of the bust halves available, there was only one 1807 and that one was only in good or very good and cleaned, so I passed on it and that coin remains on my wish list. I was also surprised by the LACK.of quality capped but dimes and quarters, specially the large planchet variety minted 1809-1828. This really struck me. Lots of capped but halves (halfs?), but almost no large planchet dimes or quarters. Why? On the other hand, there were some very nice small size dimes and quarters of the type minted 1831-1837. Early coppers, my other passion, were also noticeably lacking: almost every dealer I spoke too had left his nice 1794-1797 large cents or half cents at home, or ‘just’ sold.it The few I saw were in general not nice with defective planchets. One or two were very nice, but priced accordingly and then some! As such things go, we were getting ready to leave when my son called me over to a table were he saw some coins which interest him – 1700th century german issues. This dealer also had some US coins, and amongst those an ANACS VF30 encapsulated Nova Eborac issue (the common type with figure seated left). It has some planchet defects. but nice nevertheless, AND I don’t have one. I could not resist. Love those colonials. I must also confess, to my shame (and eternal damnation), that I bought some Dellers copper darkener. I am curious to see what it can do to some low grade cleaned late date coppers that I have. Something to play with. And, last but not least, some literature: the 2010 Red Book (nice pictures), and also Dave Bowers new Encyclopedia of Colonial Coin. Apparently this book has just come out, and it promises to provide some interesting reading and nourish my interest in early US colonial issues. All in all, a very interesting show. I can only recommend it to any CT’ers who ever happen to be around, to visit this show. And it is off to the show at Dedham MSA for us next week! You can imagine that for someone like me, with an avid interest in US coins but living far away from the US and seldom seeing some many US coins together, being able to visit such as show is an unforgettable experience. Eduard
Did you notice if anyone there have many ancients? I'm in Massachusetts, and I have been having trouble finding out if any shows around here have any.
Hey Gao, Western Mass here too! (Westfield) I will have to find out when the next show in Westford is, it seems like there aren't too many shows in my area. I live near Springfield (a larger city) and we have only a half dozen coin shops if that. Two of which I consider reputable.
Yes, two dealers had some. One of them deals only in ancients, and had a nice selection of roman, 1st and 2nd century. I bought from him once a few years ago and was satisfied. I think he also goes to Auburn and Dedham so you may want to give that a try. Auburn is probably closer for you?
I'm from Westfield, too. I managed to pick up a couple antoniniani and an Indo-Scythian drachm from a guy at the Holyoke fleamarket once, but otherwise the area seems relatively free from people who sell ancients, though correct me if I'm wrong. I tried out the Greenfield coin show a couple weeks ago, but there were only like 5 dealers, and a grand total of 2 ancient coins. I grabbed a few cheapo world and US coins, but it was still rather disappointing.
Wow.. small world! I live on Russellville Road near the fairgrounds. I wasn't even aware of the Greenfield show, I can't seem to find many in this area. I know there is a huge show coming up in October down in Stamford CT I was planning on attending... where do you hear about the smaller local shows?
Hello Eduard, Thank you for the great review on the show. I live about 1-1/2 hour drive from the Westford show and I did not make it this last weekend. (It's funny that here in New England, distance is most often measured in time). I'm glad to hear that you bought some material and I'd like to see a photo of your Nova coin when you have the opportunity to post it. BTW, next week is the ANA in Los Angeles. I don't suppose you are traveling there? Very best regards, collect89
I'm on Western Ave. near the park. I basically just put "MA coin show" into Google one day to see what turned up. The information on that particular show is actually very poor, since everywhere I found gave an email address that didn't work, and most of them only had the dates for last year (though since it's held on the third Sunday of odd numbered months, it wasn't that necessary). There's apparently also a small show they have in West Springfield a couple times a year, though I can't seem to find any dates for this year. I might try that out if I ever find out the date, since it's right there. In addition, it seems that there's a West Springfield Coin Club as well that meets once a month in September-June, though I only found out about that recently.
Warning! Some of the pics are wrong in the new Bowers book. Here are a few I know of: Connecticuts: pg. 135 g.2 reverse pg. 137 r.5 reverse pg. 138 hh.2 reverse pg. 139 GG reverse There are more but those were the only wrong ones I could find with a quick glance over. I have them marked so I don't forget. :goofer: Ribbit
