My 6-year-old had the day off from school for Veteran's Day, so I decided to bring him with me to the first day of the 3-day Bay State Coin Show in downtown Boston, MA (billed as "New England's Largest Coin Show"). I was a little worried about bringing him since, unlike coin shops, I didn't know if there would only be high end stuff or whether there would be anything he could get.
Well, I needn't have worried! Although he was the only kid we saw today (we were there for four hours), a number of the dealers had discount bins of $1-2 coins or special "kid's coins" boxes. A few dealers even gave my son free coins or bills (mostly foreign junk, but one guy gave him an old Whitman
Buffalo nickel folder with 6 or 7 nickels already in it). My son loves to talk (and talk and talk and talk...) so the dealers loved teaching him about coins and hearing about the coins he already had in his collection. It helped immensely that we got there on the first day of the show right when it opened, before things got too crowded.
As for me, well, my goal was to upgrade some of the lesser quality coins in my 7070 Type Album. I brought a roll of "junk"
Morgan dollars and about 6 "junk" silver half dollars (Kennedy, Franklin, Walking Liberty and even a Barber) for trading, along with about $1000 cash. By the time we left, I had about $250 and no trade coins left. Many of the coins were obviously cleaned, but since I was getting them for my type album I didn't really care as long as the details were strong. I also decided to buy my first ever oversized dollar bill, which set me back $200 all by itself simply because I wanted a nice specimen and didn't want a wrinkled one for "only" $90.
I'm sure I ended up spending too much money, but we both had a great time and I really enjoyed talking to many of the dealers and learning more about the hobby. I can't say I'd do this oten, but I'd certainly go back again next year.
Oh - did somebody say they wanted to see pictures?
Posted 11/11/2011 7:11 pm
