Greetings from somewhere over the southeastern United States as I fly to Dallas-Fort Worth on my way to the American Numismatic Association Headquarters in Colorado Springs for a meeting with the Technical Committee. What better way to celebrate technology than pulling out the iPad and writing a blog entry. Of course this will be posted after I land and can connect to the Internet.
Being on my way to the ANA brings to mind this past weekend’s coin show by the Tidewater Coin Club at the Tidewater Convention Center in Virginia Beach. After waking early, I climbed into the X3 and headed fours hours south to check out another club’s show. Although I anticipated coffee stops I was not prepared for the Sunday construction I found along the way. Although the drive took longer than expected, I arrived with plenty of time to browse and schmooze.
When I arrived at the convention center I found it full with two other events being held along with the coin show. The Tidewater Convention Center is a modern facility that would rival that in any medium size city and is a nice representative of the Virginia Beach-Tidewater region.
The coins how was held in a large meeting room upstairs, so I passed the two shows to the escalator going up. When I arrived at the greeting table I was met by members of the Tidewater Coin Club. The three gentlemen at the table were pleasant and engaging. The handed me a door prize ticket and I purchased tickets for the gold raffle—a quarter-ounce and tenth-ounce American Eagle gold coins. I do not think I won since I did not receive a call asking how they can send me the gold coin.
Once inside I was delighted and surprised. Delighted in that all of the tables were occupied and there were a number of people browsing the various offerings. I was surprised in the number of dealers that I have seen in the various shows around the Washington, DC area. At least a third of the dealers attended the Alexandria Coin Club show three weeks ago. The is nothing wrong with seeing the same people, they are all fun people with good inventory, but it would have been nice to meet new people.
As I made the rounds I looked at their various offerings and spoke to the dealers. I did buy but I was able to get in a little campaigning in between purchases.
My purchases from this show may be considered mundane but is significant in that they were all geared to putting together the One Page Cent type collection I wrote about last week. Even aft verifying prices with online price guides, I wanted to verify that it could be done. In the process. I was able to find a nice 1858 small letter Flying Eagle cent for $30, a 1859 copper-nickel Indian Head cent, a 1902 Indian head cent in red-brow, and a 1909 VDB cent all under $20 each. I was able to add a nice 1944 shotgun shell cent, 1959 blazing red Memorial cent, and the 7-coin 1982 copper and copper-player zinc set for less than $10 for all of the coins. With the four Lincoln birth bicentennial cents I already have, I was able to progress far into this collection.
I will finish this collection by the Whitman Baltimore Show in March and start on the next typeset. I am already working on a plan for a cent to represent 2, 3, and 5 cents coins on one page. As part of this effort, I will be turning my experience into a Money Talks program for the next National Money Show this May in New Orleans.
After making two passes around the floor, I found the president of the Tidewater Coin Club, introduced myself, and complemented him on a good show. He seemed a little overwhelmed since this was his first show as the club’s new president, but he seemed to be the type that could get things done. If my experience at their show is any indication, he will have a successful term as their president.
Before leaving the show area, I stopped to look at the nearby exhibits by club members. One that really is interested me was one about nickel typesets. Rather than being an extensive collection of copper-nickel composition five-cent pieces, it was a nice representative of various type coins with an index card for each coin explaining why each are part of the set. It would not win an ANA exhibit award, but it was very interesting and was really great to see.
We are getting ready to land. I will end here about the Tidewater Coin Club Show.
For the next few days, watch the @coinsblog Twitter feed and my Pinterest site for pictures and news from the ANA headquarters in Colorado Springs.