Coin Show - Monthly Notes from 2010

The comments below summarize each of the earlier 2010 coin shows. Scroll down for the most recent coin show's notes at the bottom.

Monthly Coin Show - January 2010

The new year of monthly shows started with a packed bourse, "packed" I tell you. Dealers and guests filled the ballroom with wall-to-wall fun of buying, selling and trading coins, currencies and precious metals.

The rainy and 48° weather did not deter people from the show. Many people commented, "It's good the show wasn't last weekend." Bob says, "If I had a nickel for every time someone said that, I would have a lot of money." So, yes, we are thankful the show wasn't last weekend when it was icy cold, and we're thankful the weather warmed before the show this weekend. Coin shows and icy conditions in the south just don't mix well.

Though not really warm, the morning temperature didn't stop the musician from playing his trumpet on the bus parked in back of the hotel. The dealers enjoyed his efforts when they arrived and during setup. Hopefully, people staying in the hotel appreciated his performance and didn't mind the early morning wake-up serenade.

As for the bourse, once again, we saw many new faces at the show. We welcome you, and we're glad you came. From the webmaster, here's a thank you and welcome to the gentleman who has been reading the show notes for a year and who visited the show for the first time this weekend.

Many of you enjoy variety in your collections. Being on the same Sunday, the coin show and the North Atlanta Sports Collectibles show benefited from cross traffic to each show.  Though serendipitous, we hope you have fun browsing the diversity of collectibles found among the dealers at both shows.

The bourse layout allows for the dealers' tables along with aisles wide enough for the guests to move easily throughout the show. Many guests visit the show not only to see the dealers and what they offer each month, but they also find it worthwhile to socialize with other guests in the middle of the wider aisles.  Some are old friends, some are new friends, but all are enjoying their like-minded interests.

As in recent months, people continue to deal in gold and silver. Some people come to buy whereas others bring their gold, silver and other precious metals (e.g., platinum) to sell or trade. They may want to cash out or they may want to trade up. Some people's interests change, and they want to enjoy owning a different collectible for awhile.

As for dealers, have you ever noticed? They prefer to tell you what they've bought rather than what they've sold. Numismatics may be their business; however they're just collectors at heart. And for some, the treasure hunting - and finding - is the most fun of all.

This month guests offered dealers some nice gold coins. A few of the coins included a certified MS65 $3 gold piece, two MS66 graded St. Gaudens, a $10 Indian graded MS65 and a $10 Liberty graded MS65. Of course, many other coins and opportunities traded ownership to mutual benefit as well.

Whether an experienced collector, informed investor or someone new to the skill of numismatics, you are invited and welcome to join the fun at the Greater Atlanta Coin Show.

Now, in the spirit of these economic and political times, let's have this month's quotes:

Mortimer Smith: "The individual who is best prepared for any occupation is the one ... able to adapt himself to any situation." 

Martin Luther King, Jr.: "We must accept finite disappointment, but we must never lose infinite hope."

Erich Fromm: "Free man is by necessity insecure, thinking man by necessity uncertain."

Dave E. Smalley: "The survival of the fittest is the ageless law of nature, but the fittest are rarely the strong. The fittest are those endowed with the qualifications for adaptation, the ability to accept the inevitable and conform to the unavoidable, to harmonize with existing or changing conditions." 

Aristotle: "The ideal man bears the accidents of life with dignity and grace, making the best of circumstances."

Reinhold Niebuhr: "God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference."

In closing, boldly make changes where you can and gracefully adapt when you can't. We hope to see you at our next show on February 14. 

Monthly Coin Show - February 2010

What a show. Four inches of snow fell in the metro area on Friday evening into Saturday morning then 50+ degrees for the show on Sunday.  

Wasn't the snow beautiful? Instead of the dangerous ice storms metro Atlanta normally experiences, the heavy, wet snow blanketed the area late on a Friday and began melting by midday Saturday.

Take a look at the "cotton balls" in the trees and the white blanket on the ground in these pictures:

That last picture almost looks like an apple tree in full, springtime bloom. In reality, it's a dogwood with the snow "cotton balls" in all of its branches.

For the coin show, Sunday's weather included an overcast day with temperatures reaching the low 50s and a few intermittent blue skies throughout the day.

Neither the weather nor the sweetheart day kept people away. Once again, lots of people browsed the bourse and enjoyed the deals being offered. Welcome to all and thank you for coming!

New faces joined us this month. Some became awestruck as they entered and saw the size of the bourse, the number of dealers and the quantity of guests. All were welcome.

Once again this month, the coin show and North Atlanta Sports Collectibles Show shared their Sunday date at the Holiday Inn Select. People easily moved back and forth between the two shows. Plus, people from the coin show walked over to get a glimpse of and meet Otis Nixon, the former Atlanta Brave, who was autographing his new book, Keeping It Real.

Also this month, several of our regular dealers had conflicts - some personal and some business. As a result, the coin show invited a couple of new dealers to join the bourse. Welcome to you, and we hope you had a good show.

As for coins, many interesting coins occupied the dealers' tables with a few out-of-the-ordinary.

For example, one dealer offered a slabbed, 50-piece set of classic, silver commemoratives. From the PCGS site, they describe this type of set as, "The 50-piece silver commemorative set includes one coin of each type of commemorative issued from 1892 through 1954. This highly collected series is often put together in gem condition (MS65/better) and many collectors seek out coins with attractive toning to build their set around. The set includes 48 half dollars, one quarter, and one dollar. Key issues are the Lafayette dollar, Isabella quarter, Hawaii, Sesqui, Monroe, and other coins, depending on condition and mintage."

In slabbed condition, this 50-piece set gleamed with beautiful coins.

Another, not-so-common-to-the-bourse coin was the 1942 over 1941 Mercury Dime. To save money, engraving and metal, the mint chose to reuse the 1941 die. You can see the faint "nubs" in this picture of a 1942 over 41 dime.

Not to be outdone by a dime, a 1909s Indian Cent graced the bourse as well. Per PCGS Coinfacts, "The 1909-S Indian Head Cent has THE lowest mintage of the entire series (at 309,000 pieces, the mintage is less than half that of the revered 1877 Indian Head Cent).  Collectors love this date not only for its rarity but because it is one of only two dates struck at the San Francisco Mint (the other being the 1908-S).  1909 was the last year of production for the Indian Head Cent and fore-sighted collectors saved many nice examples, thus keeping the price of Uncirculated examples reasonable relative to their rarity.  Many counterfeit examples of this date exist, so certification is a must."

Of course, people also browsed the bourse for gold. In particular, they searched for American Gold Eagles and Canadian Gold Maple Leafs. For an interesting exercise, take a look at this site to see the gold (and silver) prices side-by-side: Monex Liveprices.

Now, let's look at some quotes for this month:

Virgil: "They can because they think they can."

Norman Vincent Peale: "Change your thoughts and you change your world."

Ayn Rand: "Every man is free to rise as far as he's able or willing, but the degree to which he thinks determines the degree to which he'll rise."

L.P. Jacks: "The pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; the optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty."

Buddha: "All that we are is the result of what we have thought. The mind is everything. What we think, we become."

Henry David Thoreau: "If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours."

We hope you visited and got to see the many different coins and collectibles offered at the coin show this month. If not, plan to come to the next show on March 14.