thedeadpoint

I've finally sat down to write about my trip to the spring Baltimore Coin & Currency Convention last Friday. Another long post. Extra points if you read it all. The floor was open til 6 and I was meeting a friend in DC in the evening AND I live in Richmond, 3 hours away, so I took my time getting to the show. Didn't arrive til closer to 3 p.m, when many coin dealers are headed to dinner. I was hunting for the keys to my Peace dollar series and some keys to my $1 silver certificate collection. I arrived on the floor with my 2008 red book, Friedberg, and spreadsheet with values from Heritage, Numismedia, Red Book, and Friedberg. That proved to be an awkward thing. I've brought spreadsheets before, but this was the first time dealers actually looked at it. A few times I was too lazy to say "Do you have Fr. 1617*, 239, 238*........" and just handed them the list and had them tell me if they had them. One or two times, the dealer asked to see my list. Each time was awkward because I had values on their. Dealer: "Where are these values from?" Me: "Heritage auction lots sold in the last few weeks" Dealer: "Oh" One dealer wasn't happy to see the note she bought for $800 and was selling for $500 could be had in the same condition on Heritage for $300. Needless to say, she would not lower her price and I was not willing to go to hers when they could be readily had online. I remembered how difficult it is to look for key $1 silver certificates at a convention. The series is pretty common and sits on the bottom of big piles of notes. But the key notes aren't in most dealer inventories and, at the same time, aren't expensive enough to be feature notes. Oftentimes, dealers just bundle their notes in thick stacks. Sometimes they're ordered and I can point to a stack and pray a note I need is in there. Sadly, I ended up walking past many tables of notes. The disorder was intimidating, or the dealers didn't seem knowledgeable. Really, how should they know if they have a FR 1617* among their piles of notes? I could only find two of the half-dozen or so notes I needed. Usually, I can find a few of each, but instead I found several good examples of only these two notes. All were in or near UNC. That meant I couldn't take a FR 239 home. Instead, I brought home this: 1935 G $1 silver certificate (good for one dollar of silver when redeemed) - STAR note (replacement for error notes) - signatures of Smith and Dillon - with motto variety (has In God We Trust on reverse) - Friedberg # 1617*, 1,080,000 star notes printed. Certified Ch. Unc. 64 EPQ by PMG. It's not one of the keys in the series, but I needed it. I got it at a good price from a dealer I've dealt with for several years at the show. It's easy to be remembered because there are not a lot of folks my age on the floor. He's always had trouble with me because his notes were always out of my price range, despite his amazing selection. Anyway, I'll keep going to him in the future. He's been supportive and helpful. My real treasure of the show is this girl: 1928 $1 - silver Peace dollar struck at the Philadelphia mint. This is one of two keys of the series at a mintage of 360,649, almost 500,000 less than the next rarest. I'd give it about MS-64. The dealer had A LOT of the key dates. I had probably 8-10 1928's in different grades I could choose from. I've never seen a selection like that. They all were priced the same, so I chose the one that had the best luster and looks. Peace dollars got me started collecting. It's my first series and my most complete. Unfortunately, I hadn't added a single Peace dollar to my collection in years. I had gotten all the easy coins in the set and was stuck on the keys. I also was busy working on the silver certificate series. I've seen lower grade examples through the years, but none had the right eye quality or price. I was determined to come home with a key from this show. We all know the saying "buy the best coin you can for your money". Well, I had more money than I'm used to, so I bought this UNC key. I'm very satisfied. I've waited 15 years for that coin. It's the most I've paid for a coin and a key to my collection. That was the end of the show for me. I showed my mom the coin and note a few days ago. She was holding the coin, waving around with a loose grip, as she told me a story about her father's missing collection of Peace dollars. I thought to myself "Oh no, she's going to drop it. Nah, she won't". Then I heard it hit the floor. I wasn't happy. Her response was "What? It's made of metal. You can't hurt it by dropping it."

I'm shocked by this landslide.

Got two additions from the Baltimore show that I'll post later this week!

Beauty before age.

Good commemoration of the Flying Eagle pattern cent!

1573 is missing.

bump

I wonder how many new coins were purchased for this thread?

It's amazing to think that these coins have avoided their melting points for 425 years.

I'd love it if you could post the image here in this thread. I don't share my email readily. Thanks!

rose

Could you post a pic, Rebeka? You may have a printing error worth some value.

Miners

It's amazing how a 24% complete set can rank 15th.... Shows you how much love this series needs! Great coins, Art. Thanks for sharing.

Looks like pretty pure silver for the second one. How debased are the coins you typically come across?

Beautiful toning on the commems and nickel. Great strike on the 1879.

Perhaps there is someone among our ranks who feels so compelled to develop their own guide.

Interesting. I'll have to remember that. How often do they update prices? What are they based on?

Nice. I personally like the Auction Archives at Heritage: http://coins.ha.com/common/auction/pricesr...wse&stage=1 That's been one of the most valuable tools in my collecting. I actually learned about it in the same article I learned about coinpeople.com in.

Wow. What a great resource!

Ahh yes.. Well one of the fellas here had those coins for sale. They were just too beautiful (and a good deal) to pass up! My budget isn't great, so the little funds I do have, I try to use on my U.S. series. But, deep down inside, I do like some world coins!

Brevity is the soul of wit...

bump. 11 days to submit!

bump. 4 days to submit!