Which way to the Summer FUN Show?

Just follow the Dioscuri: It is that way! No it is that way!


C Servilus Vatia Denarius 123 BC, 3.83 gm
Obv: Helmeted Head of Roma right, wreath behind and X ROMA below.
Rev: Dioscuri galloping in opposite directions, “C SERVEILI MF” in exergue.

I picked up this coin from Artifact Man Ancient Coins at the Summer FUN Show in Orlando last weekend. The flip it came with did not include a Crawford number, maybe someone can find it for me?

Here is my 2016 Orlando Summer FUN show report. I am not sure what people find interesting about a coin show report so I will just tell you what I experienced and hope it is of interest.

I went Thursday for the first time to a FUN show to make sure I got the drop on the best goodies. There were somewhere around 10 ancient coin only dealers who brought enough good Roman and Greek coins and antiquities that I had to come back Friday to really see everything I wanted. I could spend an hour or more at each dealer easily looking over all their good stuff. I tried to buy something from each of the dealers I spent a lot of time with but I unfortunately missed a few (sorry!).

The show is easy to find, park at, gotta walk a while through the vast convention center to get to it, but then all the ancient and foreign dealers are in one area right near the entrance. The show is free, the parking is $10 per day. There is decent food right in the hall, I ate Chinese stir fry one day and Boars Head club sandwich the next day.

The dealers I visited included: James Beach, Herakles, Pegasi, Nilus, Artifact Man, and the Time Machine. There were a few more I would have liked to have checked out but I was spent by the end of the second day. Many of these folks had really nice high end Greek, good Roman Imperial and Provincial, but not a lot of Byzantine (just some nicer bronze, silver and gold).

My main focus is artistic Greek so I had some hard decisions to make with many really nice tetradrachms available from multiple dealers for $$$$. I scoped out the good stuff and bought a couple on Thursday that I did not want to see slip away. Thursday night at home I looked at old auction records and CNG sales records to check the rarity and see if the prices were reasonable, which they were, so the next day I bought one more. In the end I bought 3 Greek coins that were all very rare and artistic or historic, and ones I had not ever seen before in a show. Here, several days after the excitement and drama have worn off I think I made the right choice. None of the coins I bought were listed on vcoins, ebay, or dealer websites, etc. I was only going to find these at a show or at the dealer's shop (if they have one). Many dealers told me a lot of their good stuff never sees any listings anywhere and gets sold at shows or to existing customers. So if you want a reason to go to a show in person, I think that is a good one. If you are looking for the very top end stuff, I think you can sit at home and auction shop. If you want nice stuff that is a little below that, then shows may be a good place to l

After making the hard choices on the Greeks, I just had fun and went shopping for Roman Provincials costing around $100. Nilus had a whole box of Alexandrian stuff that had me drooling (but too broke) including a lighthouse drachm that was very nice for $500 and a Nero tetradrachm with the galley under sail $500. Bill told me he specialized in Alexandrian coins for his own collection and he still had many nice ones left. I could have bought them all.

The Time Machine was selling a lot of antiquities from Tom Cederlind's collection at basically dealer wholesale. I bought a beautiful, small Greek blackware kylix (bowl) for $100! I kicked myself later at home for not buying more pieces. I was glad to get another nice piece from Tom's collection.

I heard a lot of good war stories, like the $100 coin bought by a dealer in a lot that got sold by CNG for $11,000. I also heard about auctions gone bad where buyers backed out and other misfortunes, now just a funny story 10 years later. One older guy in a naval cap came up and sat down and told us about his father, who was an admiral, who collected the 12 Caesers in gold and silver. He also had many rare imperatorial coins. This guy inherited the collection and clearly knew a lot about the coins. His father had bought several important pieces from the the Hunt Brothers sale. Talk about a lucky collector! There were usually a couple collectors at each dealer all day but not so you felt crowded or pressured. A busy but relaxed show.

I could have spent more time with each delaer but I was basically worn out. I never looked too hard at Romain Imperial stuff, but there was lots of good coins available.
Another advantage of being at a show in person is the ability to look at boxes of coins too cheap to list on vcoins or ebay. Then you can haggle in real time over the group you have selected. In a couple minutes you can go back and forth, question the other person's parentage and moral standings, and generally have a good time arriving at a good price. No ebay, paypal, or postage fees. I ended up buying a provincial for $75 a dealer had gotten the weekend before and had no idea what it was. I love a mystery.

Several dealers told me there was a wealth of cheap Syracuse Tetradrachms on the market at the moment of all different types. I saw probably a dozen at various dealers all for very good prices. The thought was that a large collection was being sold off. Hmmmm....

If you are in town during the show or live in driving distance I really recommend attending the Summer and especially Winter FUN shows. Not sure I would fly in to the summer show. That is all I got for now!

John

 

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Winter FUN is extraordinary........

 

Will you be going to the Ft Lauderdale FUN in January @Theodosius ?

 

Heck yes, I will see you guys there!

 

I would have loved to go to the one that just passed but the funds were simply not there. Ironically I arrived in Orlando the evening of the last day of the show on an unrelated family vacation lol

 

I specifically save for these 2 shows. Seeing what you are getting in person makes it much more clear to me.

 

Just in case you do not have a full attribution of this very nice RR coin:

Servilia 1 denarius
C. Servilius M.f. Denarius. 136 BC.
Obverse: Winged, helmeted head of Roma right, surmounted by head of an eagle, wreath & * behind, ROMA below
Reverse Dioscuri galloping in opposite directions, C SERVEILI M F in ex.
Syd 525, Cr239/1.

 

Thanks... sounds like a good time. I love attending coin shows vicariously through reports such as yours. Nice Dioscuri pickup!

 

Thanks Bing!

 

No shows I can get to easily. Beautiful coin!

 

Wow, that's a fantastic coin, Theodosius ... very cool

 

C'mon man, could've met up with me and @ancientcoinguru on Friday! Got three coins on Friday, need to take some decent pics of them though.

 

Nice write-up! I've got the horse saddled for Baltimore tomorrow - nothing like the excitement of a big show. I see that Time Machine is on the roster - hopefully they haven't sold all of Tom's artifacts.

 

Your AR Denarius frolicking Dioscuri is great! I got mine several years ago, and I love it! One of my favorites:


Roman Republic
Servilia 1 denarius
C. Servilius M.f. Denarius. 136 BC.
Obverse: Winged, helmeted head of Roma right, surmounted by head of an eagle, wreath & * behind, ROMA below
Reverse Dioscuri galloping in opposite directions, C SERVEILI M F in ex.
Sear 116; Syd 525, Cr239/1.

(Cool, just stole @Bing 's attribution! )

 

Sorry I missed you all who went! No one posted anything that I noticed about going before hand so I thought it would be just me representing the CoinTalk crew.

 

@Theodosius, I really enjoyed your Summer FUN show report! I had a great time this year, hanging out with @Aidan_() all day Friday.

I came away with quite a few coins, pictured below. Of course I bought my favorites -- Roman Republican denarii, coins from the Punic Wars and Imperial women. But due to all the conversations on CoinTalk, my interests are expanding...so I also bought two medieval coins, a Byzantine weight, and a starter collection of 28 Byzantine coins. Boy, did I have fun!

 

Very nice haul

 

I did manage to buy one of Tom Cederlind's artifacts from the Time Machine -- an Ethiopian book. We think it is from the 18th century and written in Geez, but have not gotten around to trying to translate it yet.

 

No need to translate. It is the Meditations of Humpty Dumpty. Good stuff.

 

Awesome hauls!

I would love to travel down south to go to the FUN show. I bet I'd have a ton of fun!

Mark from the Time Machine is awesome. He just posted a bunch of new artifacts on Vcoins not too long ago.

Good work, everyone!

Erin