I took an Early Bird dealer pass for all three days (technically four, but I started home early Sunday). It was great to see so many old friends and meet many new ones. Sorry in advance for anyone I omit here. Colonel Ellsworth and Gary Adkins organizers, Liz and Miles Coggan, Derek Lilly and Mr. and Mrs. Rajkitkul of Paradime Coins (I acquired a new, stunning 1901-S eagle MS65+ PCGS-CAC from them, and Derek, that offer to sing in Italian at your and your lady’s wedding in Siena stands).
I had a special discussion with President Abraham Lincoln who promised to deputize me after I taught him some things about the 1909 Lincoln cents and he (of course) taught me some things about himself! Well, OK, maybe a little poetic license there, but a really fun, nice guy for a politician.
Also Phil and Tom Hinkelman of Eye Appealing Coins (thanks for the purchases sirs), Andy and Alynne Skrabalak of Angel Dee’s (bought some nice Lincoln cents and Buffalo nickels from them), Charmy Harker and Lou (so glad we finally met and that you loved Nashville), Bonnie and Fawn Sabel (who had some amazing new Trade dollars among other stunners) of Sabel Coins and their grading guru Gary Ugrinovsky [привет и спасибо]), Brian Herriott of The Druid’s Cache (another fellow opera singer), Jesse/Isaiah of Alamo City Coins (thanks for that nice Lincoln!), Justin Waddell of We Love Coins Utah, and Wayne Herndon (busy man, had a great inventory display, rented the show cases and lights for the show and also runs Wizard Coin Supply!).
Yet others: Noah and Deplorable Dan with Numismattack, Alexander Ash from whom I snapped up a nice OGH 1900-O/CC MS64 PCGS CAC Morgan, Chris McCawley of Early Cent Auctions (thanks for the purchases sir), Rick Snow (new Indian Cent variety books out, Word Up), David McCarthy of Kagin’s (also a new chronological reference to Pioneer Gold, can’t wait to read that one, gorgeous book and very well-written), Greg Marcus and his lady of Front Range Rare Coins (sorry I missed you on the show floor), Revick Galstaun, Kellen, and the rest at West Coast Coins Oregon, the whole crew at Legend Numismatic Auctions and of course some of my old home crew at Heritage Auctions, Bill Shamhart (wonderful educational display on postage currency), our own webmaster from Interfanatic, the genial, generous and incredibly talented Ryan Delane (who also helped with the IMEX website) and his lady Edenia (foi um grande prazer conhecê-la).
Nice chats with the folks at CACG who informed me that they are working hard on getting Registry Sets up and running and were accepting their first at-show submissions to take back to Virginia Beach for grading. Colton Merrill and Joe were standing in for Seth at Witter Coin.
I’ve been around numismatics for quite a long time, and it takes a lot to completely blow me away, but when I came to the Hard Asset Management display, let’s just say I uttered quite a few four-letter exclamations I simply couldn’t control. In their secure cases were (just among the coins that I recall):
—an 1804 Restrike (Class III) silver dollar AU55 PCGS, the Garrett-Sommer ex: Pogue example, the third 1804 I’ve gotten to hold in my life; an incredible 1803 silver dollar, PR65+ Cameo PCGS CAC;
—a complete 1885 proof gold set comprising the one, two and a half, three, five, ten, and twenty dollar gold coins, all PR66 and PR67 and Cameo or Deep Cameo, most of them CAC as well;
—four-piece gold proof sets from 1859 (!), 1908, 1909, 1910, 1914, virtually all in super-high grades PR65 or better, many of them Cameo;
—and a complete set, surely the finest known, of the “Twelve Caesars” ancient gold coins, all NGC, from Julius Caesar through Caligula and Claudius to Domitian and covering the period from 44 B.C. to 96 A.D. They also had a silver denarius of Marc Antony and Cleopatra!
These highlights were only a fraction of the incredible amount of material they had on display (the Stella deserves mentioning, as does the ex: Bass 1795 Small Eagle BD-1 five dollar MS61 PCGS CAC), but I took one final look around when I was about to leave the show and gasped at the gold Double Sovereign Piedfort of Queen Elizabeth I, “The Virgin Queen,” in superb condition. This was a perfect ending to my show, an abundance of amazing icing on my show cake! I personally took home a nice handful of newps including a super 1900-O/CC Morgan in MS64 PCGS OGH with CAC green bean and a few other goodies.
Like any first-time show, this one had a few improvement opportunities, but it was held in the Music City Center, an amazing venue that did not even exist when The Princess and I lived in Nashville back in another century. It’s an enormous building, and there are lots and lots of entertainment and dining venues and tourist attractions scattered all through downtown, which is now frankly a lot nicer than when we lived there. Congratulations to the organizers, especially Col. Ellsworth and Gary Adkins and the many other volunteers, for what I think (and hope) may grow to be an increasingly important and successful new show which the mid-South area desperately needs!