This has been a show I've been looking forward to for the past couple months. Last night I got on Yahoo! and printed out some directions. Yahoo! estimated the time of travel at 1 hours and 5 minutes...... Doing 50mph maybe! After nearly taking the wrong exit two different times we (Erica and myself) made it to the show just after 1pm, a 40-45 minute trip. On a side note, I hate driving in Michigan.

We entered the hotel where it was held and we knew we were in the right place. Someone was showing off their new purchases, two GSA Morgans. Went to the front table, grabbed a name tag, free elongated cent, and purchased 3 raffle tickets (the gold made me do it!).

Started to browse the floor and noticed a lot of high quality coins that just begged me for attention. I was glad to give it to them. I saw some really awesome rainbow Morgans (my first true monster in person), a ASE that looked to have been spray painted with neon paint, and some really nice red/blue bust halves. There was this 1899-O MS64* Morgan that was just out of this world. Reverse blast white, obverse was obviously end roll toned. Just thinking about it makes me wish I had the cash for it. They were all out of my price range but checking out some real toners was cool. An experience indeed.

The next major table was one that had proof IHC's and a large selection of AU+ large cents. I had to leave that table before I dropped a few hundred on an 1816 that caught my eye There were also some of those new ANACS slabs. My conclusion was they feel and look very cheap. Even Erica liked the old design better.

The last table I went to was the only one I spent money at. He had some really nice priced coins I wanted/needed and I couldn't drive 1.5 hours total and come back with nothing! So I purchased these two beauties:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v154/burks/Mich.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v154/burks/Mich2.jpg

The quarter is really nice, colors range from dark brown, dark red, and dark blue. I'd put it at about VF20, maybe a tad more. The Mercury is white with a little red/orange at the top. Probably a VF20 as well, reverse is much nice than obverse. Scans don't do them any justice (camera is at my dad's).

Overall I had a fantastic time and was really "wowed" by numerous coins and tables. I think there were a few times I may have started to drool over the cases. . My only purchases were the two coins posted about and a new loupe.

Well that's all for now. Look for my show report on Columbus toward the end of this month. Tomorrow I'll be heading a few streets over for the monthly Toledo show.

Cool! Off topic question- what's the speed limit?

Did they have to pull out a baseball bat to chase you off?

I love coin shows....there is just nothing better.....

In the Detroit area it is slow enough to successfully navigate around the potholes other asst road hazards in the "Motor City"

Posted as 70, I went 75-80 and was still being blown away.

Nice report and sounds like you had a terrific time. I like both of the coins you got!

Speed limit signs in Detroit are just arbitrary numbers posted to meet Federal guidelines, so that we can continue to get government funding to fix all the pot-holes. But, it has been determined that using the funds to fix the pot-holes would mean people would drive even faster, and thus a greater need for traffic officers. In order to reduce the amount of funding needed to patrol the highways, we just don't fix the pot-holes, which is the best speed deterent known to man. This whole scheme is also supplemented by kick-backs from the tire/alignment shops, wrecker services, and insurance companies.

....bureaucracy at it's finest!!

(I have heard people talk about "speed limits." What are they?)

I bought more than I intended, but I have no regrets. My last purchase was a Hadrian denarius with a crescent moon and star. That was from FIRST LIGHT NUMISMATICS of Mason, Michigan. Fred Knust is a retired statistician and has worked with and for several dealers as a cataloguer. Raised in Japan while his father was in the military, Fred really knows Oriental numismatics well, but has no problems with ancients and world in general. Last show, I bought a 12th Genoan silver dinar (penny) from him. It just caught my eye and the price was right and I am researching the times and places of that era for an article.

For my personal collection, I bought 20 stock certificates from Phil Delia of Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. Delia Coins does a little of everything as everyone does, but has a trove of stock certificates that I enjoy picking from. This time, I generally chose vignettes, but with some eye to endorsements, etc.

Mostly, I bought silver bars and rounds that I will be reinbursed for when I have them engraved for the MSNS Educational Forum speakers this coming Thanksgiving. This will be our 50th Anniversary and MSNS is planning quite a shindig. My part of that will be a major Educational Forum on the theme "Collecting Michigan." The headliner will be Karl Mark Pall, of Macomb Community College, an expert in Michigan Obsolete notes. At this convention, his exhibit took Best of Show.

Incidentally, I neither judged nor exhibited this show, spending all three days walking the floor in a blue sport coat and doing whatever was asked of me. There was the Board of Directors meeting, of course. Also, I spoke on "Fakes, Frauds, and Counterfeits: Threat or Menace?"

uggghhh. Now I really wish I would've been able to make it. (ummm, isn't Mr. Delia from Mt. Clemens??) I have bought from him several times, via eBay. He seems to have a huge supply of Yugoslavian notes. Problem for me now is that he usually lists groups of 7-10 notes, and when I only need 1 of them, the bidding tends to get a little ridiculous for a single piece.

I'll look for you here in Columbus. I've never been to a coin show like this before; I'm quite looking forward to it, even though I know I won't have the modern money to buy much in the way of old money.

Nice report. I love those two coins you purchased!