Philadelphia Show Sept 19-22

Never had the scrapple in those parts, though I hear tell it's excellent. Some good Pennsylvania Dutch scrapple, though, and other nice goodies, across Arch Street from the Whitman show, at the Reading Terminal Market.

Happy hunting in Philly, guys! I can't make that show, but am planning on attending the Virginia Numismatic Association convention and show in Fredricksburg next weekend with my youngest son and some friends. It's an annual event for all of us and we make a day of it (lots of history in the area). As for scrapple - I had a room mate from Bethlehem, PA, a number of years ago when I was attending school in Washington, DC. He always had a supply of that stuff from home in the refrigerator. As I recall it had a deathly grey color to it prior to frying it up. It wasn't all that bad, tho. We always had friends over for big breakfasts on the weekend. Yum.

Enjoy the show, guys. It falls during my biweekly "bad period" of work. While you're there, I'm going to be working approximately 4 miles from you as the crow flies; between now and Sunday morning I'm going to be on the clock for 36 hours, and I'll get a grand total of 10-12 hours' sleep for the whole period. Even though I'll have Sunday free, I get off at 7:30AM and the last thing I'll want to do is turn around and cross the river to spend the day in Philly.

If you cannot find something that leaves you walking out groaning under the extra weight of what you've just eaten, you didn't do the Reading Terminal right. And it's adjacent to the Convention Center....

Got there for Day One, but skipped the Reading Terminal Market (I can go there any time I want, on foot!). If you want to see what I got, though, you have to venture into the US Paper Money forum.
Tried to have a plan, but found myself looking through piles of Hard Times Tokens, of all things! Maybe I'll wander in again on Saturday...

Quick trip report: Just got home. Show was underwhelming. Sold a few odds and ends and put some money in my pocket. Bought 3 things and spent a total of $51. WAY too many investment grade/high end coins for my tastes.

I ended up meeting up with a bunch of EAC/C4 folks that I know. I saw 3 folks from one of my local clubs, a local dealer (who wrote a book on NJ coppers), and a local fellow detectorist. I did enjoy myself and lunch at RTM is always a plus! I had gone there with a budget of about $700-800 so only spending $50 was disappointing. I came really close to buying 2 different low grade 1793 wreath cents but in the end I couldnt pull the trigger on either. Almost bought a really nice 1794 Half Cent but a dealer friend pointed out a flaw that had not noticed which killed the deal for me.